COLOMBIA, SC (AP) – Frustrated by what he said is a slow implementation of COVID-19 in South Carolina vaccines, Governor Henry McMaster said on Tuesday that the hospital and health workers have until January 15 to have an injection or will have to “go to the end of the line”.
McMaster said he asked health officials to speak to hospitals and then review the rules.
Current state rules say that 70% of eligible health workers and nursing home residents need to be vaccinated. When this is done, the state will begin vaccinating people over 75 and frontline employees such as police, jailers, grocery stores, teachers and postal workers.
McMaster wants to set the deadline instead.
“If we need to move the next group sooner, we will do that,” McMaster told a news conference.
The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control did not immediately comment on the governor’s idea, but McMaster said health officials were meeting and planned to submit the new rules on Tuesday.
The pace of vaccinations angered both the governor and lawmakers.
State Sen. Nikki Seltzler, a Democrat from West Columbia, issued a blunt statement saying that after waiting patiently for 10 months to see a vaccine developed, South Carolina now needs immediate access to it.
“We need decisive action to save lives,” said Setzler in a declaration.
As of Monday, the state had distributed less than half its initial distribution of the Pfizer vaccine to about 43,000 people. Statistics on the Modern vaccine have not been released.
McMaster said he blames much of the blame on hospitals for the slow deployment, because they have been very strict – giving injections only to employees who deal directly with patients with COVID-19, rather than any healthcare provider. The governor said hospital leaders had promised to do better.
Adding distress to the slow release of the vaccine is a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases. Last week, South Carolina set state records for new cases. He is seeing more than 3,600 new cases a day for an average of seven days, almost double the new cases in the summer, when the state almost led the country. The state topped 5,000 COVID-19 deaths earlier this month.
On Monday, the rate of positive tests was 33.3% – the highest recorded since the outbreak began. Health officials want that figure to be below 5%.
McMaster spent several minutes at his news conference insisting that he would not order the closure of any company or add any restrictions, even with the high numbers of cases.
But he informed health officials that if they didn’t intervene and change the vaccine’s rules, he would use his emergency powers.
“If there is anything else that needs to be done, I will do it,” said the governor. “I cannot change the law, but I will change a rule.”
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