COLUMBIA, S.C. — Doctors and state public health officials are urging families to get their booster shot ahead of the holiday season, as three omicron variant cases were found recently in South Carolina.
At a vaccine clinic in Columbia Thursday, some families wanted to get their shots before spending the holidays with family.
Mother Netarshia Williams said, "we felt it was what we needed to do to protect our family.” Williams said she recently got her booster shot and was taking her young daughter to get her first dose.
Cassie Rader, mother of three, shared similar reasons for coming to the clinic: "We have a couple family members that are high risk.” Rader received her booster shot Thursday.
Williams is hosting her family's Christmas party, but under one rule: "The prerequisite for this year was if you come, we’re hosting at our house, you must be vaccinated or have a negative test,” she said.
The two are getting a stamp of approval from Dr. Helmut Albrecht with Prisma Health – who said getting the booster is proving to be more protective against omicron than two doses.
“Even now if you get the booster before Christmas, you will have a significant increase in your protection against delta and omicron,” Albrecht said.
Albrecht added that the new variant is likely widespread in the state.
According to the CDC, breakthrough cases are more common with the omicron variant, but the vaccines are still proving to prevent serious illness. For those who are unvaccinated, doctors recommend getting your initial doses for protection.
And Albrecht reminds everyone that masks and social distancing still work too.
“It was probably fine to be without masks in a larger setting fi there were only vaccinated people in the room, now you have to rethink that a little,” said Albrecht.
According to the CDC, anyone 16 and older can get the booster shot six months after their second dose. Those who got the Johnson and Johnson vaccine are eligible two months after their single shot.
Doctors hope boosters along with masks and social distancing will help prevent another surge of hospitalizations.
As of December 16, DHEC reported over 651,000 South Carolinians have received a third dose.