In the past few days, our social media feeds have been filled with photos of South Carolinians who traveled to neighboring Florida, Georgia or North Carolina to receive their first Covid-19 vaccines. Why take the trip? Because in each of these states, adults over 65 are eligible to receive vaccines – while in South Carolina, vaccine registration remains limited to adults over 70.
Residents of the state of Palmetto between the ages of 65 and 69 are unlikely to be eligible to register for vaccines until sometime in the spring …
Why is it South Carolina? ever behind the curve (in addition to a widespread and perpetual lack of leadership)?
As we reported earlier (more recently here), the state of Palmetto has consistently ranked last in the country in vaccines received from the federal government as part of the former US president Donald Trump“Operation Warp Speed”.
That remains the case today …
On January 31, 2021, South Carolina received a modest 10,879 doses for every 100,000 of its citizens, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States. Once again, this number ranks last among the country’s fifty states.
When it comes to doses administered by 100,000 citizens, however, Palmetto State has shown dramatic improvement in recent weeks. Since January 31, the state has managed 8,537 doses per 100,000 citizens – which ranked No. 33 nationally.
When we started tracking this metric, South Carolina was ranked 48th nationally in that metric.
Given the low number of doses distributed to the state, it is an impressive turnaround. In fact, South Carolina administered more vaccines per 100,000 citizens than neighboring Georgia (8,535) – although the State of Peach has received significantly more doses (13,655) per 100,000 than in the state of Palmetto.
In addition, as we reported earlier, more vaccines are on the way …
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Although Covid-19 is still dangerous – especially its most recent and contagious strains – the good news is that cases have been steadily declining in recent weeks. After reaching a new record for 6,113 confirmed cases on January 8 – and seeing the state’s seven-day moving average rise above 5,000 for three days last month – South Carolina enters February with a seven-day moving average of 3,201 cases, according to the latest data from the much-maligned Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) of SC.
This is still a high number of daily cases, but the dreaded peak of the holiday seems to have run its course …
More encouraging, the hospitalizations related to the virus – which reached a record 2,466 on January 13 – fell by a huge 25.3 percent the past two and a half weeks for 1,841. Hospitalizations in the intensive care unit related to the virus – which peaked in 495 on January 17th – dove 16.5 percent for 413. And the total number of patients with Covid-19 who currently use ventilators is 261 – low 17.7 percent of your peak 317 on January 18th.
Unfortunately, many of these patients have succumbed to the virus and / or associated comorbidities.
According to SCDHEC, a total of 7,042 South Carolinians have died with Covid-19 since the state started keeping records in March. The death toll – which has skyrocketed in recent weeks – is expected to reach 9,340 on May 1, 2021, according to the latest projections from the Institute of Metrics and Health Assessment (IHME) in Seattle, Washington.
Still, the South Carolina lethality rate associated with Covid-19 is at 1.6 percent – tied at its lowest level since the first wave of the virus last spring. Nationally, the lethality rate is at 1.7 percent – which is also tied at its lowest level since last spring.
As it has been doing since the beginning, Covid-19 targets South Carolina’s elders almost exclusively. According to SCDHEC, 37.9 percent of those who died of the virus are over 81 years old – while 68.7 percent are over 71 and 87.6 percent are over 61 years old.
On the other hand, only 4.2 percent of those who died with Covid-19 are less than fifty years old and only 1.3 percent are less than forty years old.
Once again, we do not increase these numbers in an effort to assign a value to one life over another – but to provide context for risk (especially the risk of re-engaging draconian outages in our society).
Which reminds us, for a separate discussion on the risks associated with keeping state schools open … Click here.
Result? While the new Covid-19 strains are clearly a cause for concern, the general situation related to the South Carolina virus (and across the country) is showing signs of improvement … and while Palmetto’s state is still behind the rest the country in receiving vaccines, intensified the administration of doses.
-FITSNews
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