COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster is asking the state's health agency to move almost 38,000 vaccine doses away from a long-term care program and toward other providers so more people can get vaccinated.
McMaster sent a letter to the South Carolina Board of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) Chairman Mark Elam asking for the reallocation.
In the letter, Gov. McMaster calls for the chairman to take 37,800 doses of Moderna vaccine from the federal Pharmacy Partnership for Long Term Care Program and give it to other vaccine providers in the state.
According to the letter, partners with the long-term care program have determined there will be a surplus of the vaccine and Gov. McMaster would like it to be made available to the general public.
“The LTC Program partners CVS and Walgreens have completed their first pass through our state’s long-term care facilities and have determined that there will be a surplus once every resident and staff member have been offered both doses,” the governor writes in the letter. “These surplus vaccines should be made available to the general public right away rather than at the completion of the LTC program.”
South Carolina currently has administered over 362,000 vaccine doses of the 657,000 it's received, according to SCDHEC.