Beaufort hospital is closing vaccine clinic, free COVID-19 testing site. Here’s why
Beaufort Memorial Hospital is closing its COVID-19 vaccine clinic in Port Royal and its drive-thru testing site in Beaufort due to a drop in demand, the medical center confirmed Friday.
The vaccine clinic shuttered on Thursday, and the last day of free testing is Dec. 23 at 990 Ribaut Road.
“It is time for us to move clinic staffers back to their primary roles and focus on serving the community in other ways,” hospital CEO Russell Baxley wrote in a statement.
It’s essentially the end of an era. Beaufort Memorial Hospital has played a crucial role in the county’s battle against COVID-19 and the region’s sprawling vaccination effort.
The hospital has administered nearly 60,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines to more than 37,000 people in the past year, according to a hospital spokesperson.
For context: If all of those people were Beaufort County residents, and each received their first dose at the hospital, that’s 29% of all vaccine recipients with at least one dose in the county, according to state data.
The hospital vaccinated over 25,000 people in the first four months of the inoculation campaign as it navigated South Carolina’s limited supply of doses and the vexing Vaccine Administration Management System, or VAMS.
Employees also have administered tens of thousands of COVID-19 tests at hospital-run clinics and in emergency tents since the pathogen first hit the Lowcountry in early 2020.
“Our team continues to play a significant role in the fight against COVID-19 and we’re grateful for their commitment,” Baxley wrote. “We also appreciate the dozens of hospital and community volunteers who helped us accomplish what would otherwise have been a near-insurmountable task.”
The hospital’s decision to close its vaccine clinic and drive-thru testing site comes as Beaufort County’s vaccination rate remains essentially flat. Coronavirus cases also have stayed low in recent weeks (at least in comparison to this time last year).
Dr. Kurt Gambla, the hospital’s chief medical officer, in early December added that his doctors and nurses were enjoying a reprieve from COVID-19, with only a handful of coronavirus inpatients at the hospital.
The new omicron variant could throw a wrench into the county’s pandemic recovery efforts, but even then, many local pharmacies have vaccines, and the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control still runs free COVID-19 testing in Beaufort, Hilton Head Island and Ridgeland.
What about Hilton Head Regional Healthcare?
Beaufort Memorial Hospital continued its public vaccine and testing initiative much longer than Hilton Head Regional Healthcare did.
Hilton Head and Coastal Carolina hospitals ended their free drive-thru testing events in April and closed their vaccine clinic in May, citing a drop in demand (this was before the super-contagious delta variant caused another surge of infections in late July, August and September).
Testing, vaccine locations
DHEC has an online map that shows COVID-19 testing sites across Beaufort and Jasper counties: bit.ly/SCTestingMap
State health leaders have urged residents to get tested on or before Sunday if they want to receive their results before Christmas Eve.
The agency also has an online list of local vaccine providers at: bit.ly/VaxLocator
Countywide data
Here are the latest Beaufort County coronavirus numbers from DHEC:
New cases reported Friday: 20 confirmed, 12 probable
New cases reported Thursday: 25 confirmed, 14 probable
New cases reported Wednesday: 8 confirmed, 5 probable
New deaths reported from Wednesday to Friday: 1 confirmed, 1 probable
Seven-day average of new cases: 15 confirmed infections per day
Two-week incidence rate: 151.5 cases per 100,000 people
Vaccination rate: 55.1% of residents have been fully vaccinated
ZIP code data since Oct. 1
Bluffton ZIP code, 29910: 398 cases
Hilton Head Island ZIP code, 29926: 130 cases
Hilton Head Island ZIP code, 29928: 79 cases
Okatie ZIP code, 29909: 169 cases
Beaufort ZIP code, 29902: 254 cases
St. Helena Island ZIP code, 29920: 55 cases
Data in this story are current as of Friday afternoon.
