COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control gave an update on Friday to discuss the coronavirus vaccine and pandemic safety heading into the holidays.
The talk of the country for the week has been centered around the coronavirus vaccine.
"This week was a momentous week for our country. On Monday, states, including South Carolina, received their first doses of COVID-19 vaccine."
South Carolina received nearly 43,000 doses of the vaccine early on this week. 15 different health care facilities got them from the federal government.
Dr. Brannon Traxler, the Chief Medical Officer for the state's COVID-19 response, says more than 7,000 frontline medical workers have been vaccinated.
"The federal government is reserving the second doses for all those individuals that they will need to ensure that they do have vaccine available when it's time for them to be given their second dose and fully vaccinated," said Dr. Traxler.
Dr. Traxler says the new round of the vaccine for new patients could be on the way soon.
"The Moderna vaccine is expected to be issued its emergency use authorization any day now, possibly as soon as later (Friday), and we anticipate receiving a total of 200 to 300 thousand doses of vaccine, including both the Pfizer and Moderna ones, by the end of the year," explained Dr. Traxler.
Dr. Traxler says through a program with the federal government, CVS and Walgreens will be assisting with distributing the vaccine at long term care facilities.
"We have allocated, at least at the beginning, the Moderna vaccine that we will be receiving to that program and we anticipate that that will begin, obviously they still have to get their EUA and CDC has to provide their recommendations but we anticipate that that vaccine will start being administered in South Carolina the week of December 28th," said Dr. Traxler.
While the vaccine is in South Carolina, it doesn't mean we're at the finish line.
"Health care officials here in South Carolina and across the country are concerned about these devastating numbers that we could really be seeing in the coming days and weeks," explained Dr. Traxler.
The Palmetto State saw it's highest number of coronavirus cases in one day since the pandemic started. There were more than 3,600 new COVID-19 cases on Friday.
"We want to remind everyone that the safest way to celebrate the holidays is to stay home," said Dr. Traxler. "We can't stress enough of how much individual actions impact the spread of this virus."
Some people have wondered if wearing a mask will be necessary once they get the vaccine. Dr. Jane Kelly with DHEC says people still need to wear a mask.
"Yes, people will still need to wear masks, observe physical distancing, avoid crowded indoor settings and wash hands frequently even after they've been vaccinated until enough people have been vaccinated for us to feel safe as a community," said Kelly.
Dr. Kelly says both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine is both 95 percent efficacious, which is about as good as a vaccine gets.
But that still means the vaccine will not protect about five percent of people who are vaccinated.
"For example, people with amino compromised or autoimmune conditions, they may have a lesser response to the vaccine," explained Kelly. "A return to normalcy is coming, but it's still many months away. What's the point? The point is to return to normalcy, but it's going to take time."
Health officials says they are unsure at this time if the vaccine will be required for students. Clinical trials are still underway to determine what they'll say moving forward.