SC urges churches to honor COVID-19 deaths on Sunday; Beaufort Co. infections drop
South Carolina health officials are asking churches and faith groups to have a moment of remembrance Sunday for those who have died of COVID-19.
The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control wants residents to honor those lost to the coronavirus as part of a week-long initiative to bolster the state’s lagging vaccination rate, according to agency spokeswoman Laura Renwick.
More than 9,700 confirmed and probable COVID-19 deaths have been recorded in South Carolina since early last year, DHEC data show.
“We’re calling on state agencies and community partners, including churches and other houses of worship, and South Carolinians en masse to help us share extensive messaging about the importance of getting your shots,” Renwick wrote in a statement.
Some of the initiative’s details were still being finalized Wednesday, Renwick wrote.
The state’s new plan comes amid a significant drop in vaccine demand.
Only 45.6% of South Carolina’s 12 and up population as of Wednesday had received at least one dose, according to DHEC. And about 46.8% of Beaufort County residents 12 or older were still unvaccinated, state data show.
What are experts saying?
“We’re hearing, unfortunately, very commonly now, a misperception that is being raised: that vaccines may affect fertility in women. ... That is absolutely not the case, but that is a rumor and a myth that is being perpetuated. We’re hearing more and more women ask about this. … The vaccine does not cause infertility,” said Dr. Linda Bell, the state’s top epidemiologist.
Vaccine trends
Beaufort County’s seven-day average of new first-dose vaccinations as of Wednesday had dropped to 269 per day.
In comparison, about 1,072 residents were being vaccinated every 24 hours in late March.
The county, though, as of Wednesday was still ranked fifth statewide for its inoculation rate of 4,361 vaccine recipients per 10,000 residents 12 or older, DHEC data show.
Lior Rennert, a biostatistician at Clemson University, said the state has either hit a wall of vaccine hesitancy and resistance or is very close to reaching that point.
Persuading unvaccinated South Carolinians to get a shot will be a slow, time-consuming endeavor.
Case trends
Only 28 coronavirus infections were confirmed in Beaufort County over the past week.
The World Health Organization, meanwhile, recently introduced a new naming system for COVID-19 variants. Here’s a guide to the WHO classifications:
B.1.1.7, which was initially discovered in the United Kingdom, is now called Alpha.
B.1.351, which was first identified in South Africa, is now known as Beta.
P.1, a variant detected in Brazil, is now Gamma.
B.1.617.2, a variant that emerged in India, is now Delta.
Latest COVID-19 research
The New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday published a study that identified two “breakthrough” COVID-19 variant cases among 417 people who had been fully vaccinated with Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna’s mRNA-based vaccines in New York.
“During this critical period, our data support the need to maintain layers of mitigation strategies, including serial testing of asymptomatic persons, open publication and analysis of vaccination and infection databases (such as those accruing data in New York City), and rapid sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 RNA obtained from a variety of high-risk persons,” the researchers wrote.
“Our observations underscore the importance of the ongoing race between immunization and the natural selection of potential viral escape mutants.”
What else is going on?
S.C. health officials are working to administer a batch of Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine that is set to expire June 23.
State providers as of Tuesday had more than 39,000 J&J doses on hand, according to DHEC.
Demand for the single-shot vaccine has dropped since the federal government temporarily paused its use in April to investigate a few reports of extremely rare blood clots in patients.
Locally, Beaufort Jasper Hampton Comprehensive Health Services has 130 doses of the vaccine that are set to expire June 23 at a Port Royal clinic, according to Dr. Faith Polkey, chief clinical officer at BJHCHS.
The clinic is open for walk-ins 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays, Polkey said. Call (843) 987-7555 for more information.
BJHCHS also has 185 doses available on St. Helena Island and plans to offer those shots to farm workers, she said.
J&J’s vaccine was 72% efficacious in the United States during a large-scale clinical trial. Experts argue that it’s a remarkably good shot because it largely prevents severe disease. The company’s doses, which are “compatible with standard vaccine storage,” can be sent to rural areas that lack ultra-cold freezers.
