The state’s top public health officials indicated on Wednesday that transferring teachers and daycare workers to Phase 1a, as state lawmakers are leaning towards legislation, would make it more difficult for people “at greatest risk” to get their COVID vaccine. -19.
“These are very difficult decisions,” said state epidemiologist, Dr. Linda Bell, during a news conference. Since there is still not enough vaccine distributed weekly by the federal government to satisfy the demand for vaccines, Bell said that “the number one priority is to save lives”.
She said the gradual rollout of the vaccine in South Carolina has been about allowing the older population in the state to have access to the vaccine first, along with frontline health workers, because those 65 and older are the largest group demographic.
There are about 1.3 million people qualified to receive an injection in South Carolina in Phase 1a, and about 470,000 first doses have been administered, said Nick Davidson, a public health deputy with the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.
“If we want to save lives, it’s all about vaccinating people who are most at risk,” he said during the briefing.
Davidson said there are an estimated 150,000 people who would be added as soon as teachers and day care centers became eligible, a group of essential workers currently included in Phase 1b.
Although new daily cases have dropped from the peak of the holiday that hit record highs in early January, they are still at levels that indicate spread in the community. More than 1,500 new cases were reported by DHEC on Wednesday, with another 39 deaths.
Nearly a year after the pandemic impact began in South Carolina, almost 418,000 tested positive for the virus and more than 6,900 died.
In Sumter County, 7,855 tested positive and 135 died, while Clarendon County recorded 2,380 cases and 86 deaths, and Lee County had 1,500 positive cases and 48 deaths.