COLUMBIA, S.C. — With the addition of age groups to Phase 1A roll out of the COVID-19 vaccine in South Carolina, The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) says that moving onto the next phase may be more difficult.
SC Gov. Henry McMaster and DHEC added those 65-years-old and older to Phase 1A of the COVID-19 vaccine roll out on February 3. Appointments for those just added to the phase will begin on Monday.
With this addition, Phase 1A includes around 1.3 million people in the state. That number includes medical staff, first responders, and anyone 65 and older.
Dr. Michael Kacka, DHEC physician and Chief Medical Officer for COVID-19, said that this expansion will make moving into Phase 1B more difficult.
Across the state, educators and lawmakers have been pushing for teachers to be added into Phase 1A.
South Carolina is set to receive an increase in vaccine allocations next week.
According to Dr. Kacka, only 373,000 people have received their vaccine in the state and even with the higher allocations, the state still has a long way to go to complete this phase.
“There’s some difficult issues within phase 1B. It’s projected to be our largest phase and there’s certain factors within it,” Dr. Kacka said.
DHEC is still learning and evaluating the best way to approach such a large group.
“Supply and demand is going to be the big factor that determines who we’re going to be able to vaccinate and if we can do a full 1B roll out or if it looks like we may need to consider specific groups within 1B to kind of roll in first, kind of like we’ve been doing,” Dr. Kacka said.
Dr. Kacka hopes that more vaccines for the coronavirus will be approved by the FDA in the near future to help with the limited supply.
“We may see additional vaccines available which may significantly change, hopefully in a positive way, the amount of vaccine that’s available and allow us to do much more groups at the same time and potentially do that full rollout of phase, instead of picking from specific groups,” he said.
According to DHEC, they will continue to support those at greater risk until everyone has a chance to receive the vaccine.