COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina health officials are advising against mass vaccination events and walk-up clinics as the state still struggles with demand outweighing supply.
"We wish there was enough vaccine to provide for everyone right now, but there just isn’t," State Epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell said.
South Carolina remains in phase 1A of vaccine rollout. Dr. Bell said that it is not an easy decision when it comes to who is next in line to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
"As more and more people are vaccinated, and in-fact we are at more than half-a-million doses administered in the state now, that means we can steadily open up vaccine appointments to more and more people, but we have to be careful and really calculated this," Dr. Bell said.
Department of Environmental Control Senior Deputy for Public Health, Nick Davidson, said appointments are the way to go.
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"We want shots in arms, but it’s also important to understand we urge all providers to do so in an appropriate way and that’s not doing walk-in clinics or large scale events," Davidson said. "We want this to be done on a scheduling basis.”
Davidson said the issue with walk-ups and mass vaccination sites is that it leaves many disappointed.
"There’s a very limited amount of vaccine in all states and we want to make sure people aren’t turned away or believing there is something there for them that isn’t, so appointment based clinics are absolutely the way to go until the vaccine supply exceeds demand," Davidson said.
According to DHEC, about 110,000 people in the state have gotten the required two doses to be considered fully vaccinated.
