The vaccine launch in South Carolina hit another hurdle on Friday, when hospitals were told that an influx of doses of the coronavirus vaccine expected next week would not happen.
State public health officials, meanwhile, said southern Carolinians should expect to see the same number of vaccine doses allocated in the previous weeks.
Although residents continue to do their vaccinations, the most recent blockade comes when authorities expand the group of eligible residents to all those over 70. Seniors across Palmetto state looking forward to receiving their vaccines made an appointment this week and hospitals responded to rising demand by requesting more doses.
Now, it seems, far fewer doses will come than requested.
SC Hospital Association President and CEO Thornton Kirby said in a statement that hospitals across the state would receive “significantly less vaccine in the next week than requested” and that hospitals would receive 20-25% less first doses of than requested.
State public health officials said hospitals would continue to receive the same number of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as in previous weeks and placed the blame on the federal government.
“Some hospitals and vaccine suppliers who place orders for their weekly vaccine allocations have requested four to five times more doses than in previous weeks, to accommodate a high demand for the vaccine,” according to the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control . “However, the state cannot respond to requests from providers for increased vaccine allocation because there is not enough vaccine available from the federal government.”
The state is expected to receive about 31,500 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine next week, DHEC said.
“As senior DHEC officials noted on a Senate (state) hearing committee earlier this week, the agency is not forecasting any increase in the allocation of the federal government’s COVID-19 vaccine in the state in the foreseeable future,” according to the agency.
South Carolina has received approximately 63,000 to 64,000 weekly doses.
These shipments usually arrive on Mondays, but doses will be delivered on Tuesday and DHEC will distribute vaccines to hospitals on Wednesday or Thursday, because Monday is a holiday, Kirby said.
“We must continue to expect what we are seeing now in the foreseeable future,” said Dr. Brannon Traxler, director of public health at DHEC, on Friday.
In his statement, Kirby noted several concerns, including the possibility that many hospitals may be forced to cancel appointments for patients receiving the first doses of the vaccine and that hospitals may be reluctant to schedule appointments beyond the next week due to unpredictable delivery.
On Friday, Beaufort Memorial Hospital officials said they were told the hospital would receive no more than 2,000 doses of vaccine expected.
“As a result, more than 6,000 appointments scheduled through March 30 will be canceled and another 6,000 requests for appointments will remain unscheduled until vaccine supplies are available and on hand,” hospital officials said.
“The hospital placed three orders, totaling more than 2,000 doses last Friday and Monday to fulfill many of the scheduled appointments. Today, they have been notified that they should receive only 450 doses next Wednesday or Thursday.”
According to Kirby’s statement, hospitals are expected to receive 100 percent of the requested second vaccine doses.
The nonprofit’s CEO said he was concerned about other consequences, such as patients being forced to go through the enrollment process again because of canceled appointments and not all hospitals specifying the first doses versus the second doses.
SC Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, said he was frustrated by the news and said DHEC officials assured him during a committee meeting on Tuesday that expanding the vaccine distribution would not be a problem.
“Frustration doesn’t begin to describe that,” said Davis. “To have this, the feeling of anger and frustration is palpable.”
The state senator said he is not sure what the next steps are, but believes there is a need for better communication between DHEC and hospitals about how many doses of vaccine to expect.
Reach Gregory Yee at 843-937-5908. Follow him on Twitter @GregoryYYee.