COLUMBIA, S.C. — DHEC's new vaccination dashboard is designed to be the sole source of COVID-19 statistics and information for the state.
The dashboard now displays the demographic and geographic distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine among South Carolina residents, regardless of whether they received the vaccine within the state of South Carolina.
Dr. Linda Bell with DHEC says the changes allow experts to better understand the percent of the population that has been vaccinated, while highlighting what areas need more vaccines.
"The dashboard will grow as data becomes available." Bell said. "It will be updated regularly, as we look at the big picture of vaccines across South Carolina."
The new dashboard also breaks down how many people have received which vaccine.
Some numbers do not match up to the current counts on the DHEC Vaccine Allocation webpage. DHEC officials explain that the data on the "Total Doses Given in South Carolina" webpage was previously updated manually after pulling from the federal VAMS database. "Our dashboard now presents the data from our own state database called SIMON," Bell said.
Dr. Bell also says SIMON, the Statewide Immunization Online Network, is the state's own database, which provides cleaner data. "Our SIMON system is able to identify duplication and will provide what we believe will be the most current and accurate information for our state," Bell said.