Senator Nikki Setzler criticizes DHEC for the response to the vaccine; SC education chief tests positive for viruses | Local News

Senator SC Nikki Setzler, D-Lexington, said on Monday that the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in South Carolina is not moving fast enough and asked the state health agency to step up.

On a Monday’s statement, Setzler criticized the Department of Health and Environmental Control of SC for not being urgent enough to distribute the vaccine and for telling the South Carolinians to be patient.

“Citizens of South Carolina have been patient for ten months, while DHEC took considerable time before having a testing program at the appropriate levels, no significant contact tracking program in place, no permanent director for at least six months. during a worldwide pandemic, and now apparently, no definitive logistics plan has been finalized so that our (vaccinated) citizens – just one in the process of development, “wrote Setzler in his statement.

“We need decisive action to save lives and guarantees that all means to vaccinate the public as soon as possible are being followed,” wrote Setzler.

This comes days after SC Governor Henry McMaster wrote a letter to DHEC, requesting the agency to provide information immediately to the public on the status of COVID-19 vaccines. McMaster specifically said that he wants “complete accounting of the situation and location of each dose of the COVID-19 vaccine that was received and distributed in the state.”

“Disclosure of this information is critical to maintaining public confidence and participation in the COVID-19 vaccination effort,” read McMaster’s letter.

Also on Monday, SC State Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman announced that her test was positive for COVID-19. Spearman tweeted that she received the news on Sunday after taking the test on December 31. Spearman said she was already in quarantine due to a positive test result from her husband and son, and she is showing only mild symptoms.

DHEC confirmed 55 new cases of COVID-19 and a coronavirus-related death in Aiken on Monday. The death occurred on January 1, and the victim was middle-aged.

Across the state, DHEC confirmed 3,492 cases and 15 deaths on Monday.

The data reported on Monday is for the date of January 2.

Monday’s report raises the total confirmed number of COVID-19 cases in Aiken County to 8,189, with 120 coronavirus-related deaths.

Aiken County also reported a total of 1,426 probable COVID-19 cases and 19 probable coronavirus-related deaths.

In the neighboring counties of Barnwell and Edgefield, 47 and nine cases of the virus were confirmed, respectively, on Monday.

According to DHEC’s acute hospital bed occupancy report, hospitals in Aiken County have an occupancy rate of 90.3%. 140 beds are occupied, while there are 15 open beds. There are 2,155 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across the state.

The total number of individual test results reported to DHEC across the state on Monday was 10,481, and the positive percentage was 33.3%.

DHEC also announced on Monday that South Carolina had received 129,675 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine and administered 43,227 of them, with a 33% utilization rate. Aiken Regional Medical Centers received 400 doses of vaccine by Monday, and administered 366 of them.

During a meeting on Monday, Dr. Brannon Traxler, interim director of public health at DHEC, said that one thing that will speed up the administration of the vaccine is that everyone do their part to reduce the spread of the virus, which has reached record levels . Traxler said that this would help to remove the burden from hospitals and healthcare professionals and allow more workers to be available to administer the vaccine.

The total number of cases across the state is now 299,685, with 25,787 probable cases, 5,056 confirmed deaths and 428 probable deaths.