COLOMBIA – South Carolina is expanding who is allowed to give COVID-19 vaccines in an effort to deliver vaccines more quickly amid growing frustration with the state’s slow implementation.
Senator Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, intended Thursday to speed up legislation to temporarily change state law to expand the group of health professionals legally able to administer a vaccine. The group of people who can do this now is very small, hospital administrators told their subcommittee.
But before Davis could take the measure to the Senate floor for discussion, the governor’s office informed him that authority was being granted, he said.
Details of an agreement between the state’s public health and licensing agencies are expected later on Thursday.
If that deal doesn’t go far enough, Davis said he will resume pursuing expansion through legislation.
Medical University of South Carolina vaccinated 3,000 people on Wednesday and expects to increase that number to 10,000 a day by the end of the month, Dr. Patrick Cawley, chief executive of MUSC Heath, told Davis’s subcommittee.
“We will be able to vaccinate more people and more economically,” Cawley told senators about the request. “Do it safely and quickly.”
On Wednesday, 52 percent of the 195,200 doses of the Pfizer vaccine sent to South Carolina since mid-December were given to eligible health workers and first responders, according to the state’s Department of Health and Environmental Control.
Southern Carolinians aged 70 and over, who became eligible for the vaccine on Wednesday, found that they would not be able to get an appointment for weeks, if at all.
Last week, the state’s public health director told reporters that DHEC was exploring the expansion of who can administer injections, including retired nurses who let their licenses expire, students in the final year of nursing school, emergency medical technicians and dentists.
But the agency did not answer follow-up questions at the time about what was needed to do this or what was preventing it.
This is a developing story. Go back to see the details.
Follow Seanna Adcox on Twitter at @seannaadcox_pc.