COLUMBIA, S.C. — The state health agency continues its reminder for everyone the COVID-19 vaccine is the best way for everyone to put the pandemic behind us.
The Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) said on the weekly briefing update on Wednesday they expect an increase in doses in the coming weeks.
"These vaccines are safe and effective and they are how we will end the global pandemic," DHEC's Senior Deputy for Public Health Nick Davidson said.
Davidson said they are slowly but surely seeing more appointment openings for the vaccine, but notes demand is still high.
“We are beginning to hear of some instances of available appointments, so it dose appear that vaccine is become a bit more available certainly than it was a few weeks ago when we first when to phase 1B," Davidson said.
But Davidson said it’s still to early to tell if they will move to phase 1 C any earlier.
"I know that not everybody can quickly and easily find a vaccine, there are still some demand that it is outpacing the supply," Davidson said. "We will continue to work with our providers and talk with our providers and assess our own clinic availability and appointment availability, and if it warrants moving to 1C sooner than expected, we will certainly do that."
DHEC also noted some concerns in the meeting about people not showing up for the second shot appointment. Both Pfizer and Moderna require two shots, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine only requires one.
"It's critical to get that second vaccine, we need everybody to get fully protected," Davidson said.
For the upcoming week, Davidson said the state is getting a total of 130,570 first doses. 83,070 will be Pfizer, 48,800 will be Moderna and 5,700 will be Johnson & Johnson.
"That’s a much better place then we were a month ago," Davidson said.
Davidson said the state may receive additional Johnson & Johnson doses midweek, which would come either over the weekend or early next week, but that is still uncertain at this point.
DHEC also said as the demand for COVID-19 vaccines continues, testing sites are seeing the opposite.
Several testing sites are reducing hours or days.
During the entire month of February, 971,778 test were preformed. So far in March, from 3/1/2021-3/22/2021, 572,137 tests have been preformed.
DHEC said there are a few reasons this could be the case.
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"There are multiple reasons the demand may be decreasing. I know holiday travel was a big encouragement for people to get tested. They wanted to make sure they were negative before they left town and were often getting tested when coming back as well," Dr. Michael Kacka, DHEC's COVID-19 Chief Medical Officer said. "There is less traveling happening this time of year, which could be a big reason we are seeing that drop in demand. What would be a bad thing is if we are seeing some complacency among the public and there is less concern about the infection right now, and that is something we don't want to see, and is why we continue to push that message about getting tested.
Kacka said vaccinated or not, if you are experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms to get tested.