COLOMBIA – Teachers, grocery workers and other essential frontline workers in South Carolina can qualify for the coronavirus vaccine in two to three weeks, the state’s top health official told lawmakers on Tuesday.
The Director of the Department of Health and Environmental Control, Dr. Edward Simmer, said his agency is closely watching vaccine appointments to see when to make it available to more people in the state.
The House committee was considering resolutions to increase teachers in the state’s vaccine line in an impulse to demand that schools reopen for face-to-face learning. The Senate approved a proposal to do just that earlier this month, and the state Department of Education says that all public school districts have vaccination plans for their employees.
But even if South Carolina starts vaccinating school officials immediately, when teachers receive both doses of the vaccine and boost immunity, it will be the end of the school year, Simmer said. And recent federal guidelines indicate that access to the vaccine is not a prerequisite for opening schools, Simmer added.
“I would love to vaccinate them today if I had the vaccine to give them. But I just don’t want to, “said Simmer.
South Carolina has received just under a million doses of vaccine from the federal government so far, with about half a million people receiving at least one dose. Simmer said he expects the state to receive incremental increases in its allocations over the next month.
Lawmakers have struggled to find a place for teachers in the state’s vaccine plan without pitting them against the elderly, who are much more likely to die from the virus, and the many other groups of essential workers who have presented their cases to lawmakers in this month. It is an effort that is losing momentum in the state as South Carolina approaches to make more people eligible for the vaccine.
State health officials say that vaccinating elderly people before teachers will save lives and keep hundreds of people out of the hospital. Governor Henry McMaster said he would oppose plans that would push the elderly further on the line.
“It’s still the Hunger Games,” said Democratic minority leader Todd Rutherford.
The state is currently in Phase 1A, with an estimated eligible population of more than 1.2 million people, including health professionals and residents aged 65 and over. The health department estimates that more than half a million people will be eligible to receive the vaccine in Phase 1B of the state plan, which currently includes teachers and other essential frontline workers.
State Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman asked lawmakers to consider putting teachers at the top of the list for Phase 1B, a request her agency previously made to the state’s vaccine advisory committee.
“Everyone is going to chew the pieces together,” said Spearman.
Of the state’s more than 1,200 schools, nearly 700 have brought students back to classrooms, Spearman said on Tuesday. Only about 20 schools remain fully virtual.
Tuesday also marked the first time the health agency cracked down on a vaccine supplier for administering vaccines to people who are currently not eligible. Horry County Fire Rescue will no longer receive the first doses of the vaccine after the enrolled provider offered the vaccines to all county officials, media reports said.
The average number of new daily cases in the state in the past two weeks has dropped by 845.1, a decrease of 26.3%, according to data from Johns Hopkins. There have been 731.4 new cases per 100,000 people in South Carolina in the past two weeks, which ranks second in the country for new cases per capita.