COLUMBIA, S.C. — Prisma Health will only be taking schedule vaccine appointments and second vaccine dose patients, according to a statement released on Saturday.
According to Prisma Health, walk-in vaccine appointments are no longer allowed at Midlands sites because the vaccine supply is running low.
As of Monday, Jan. 25, Prisma Health says it will not take any first dose walk-ins at any vaccination sites in its Midlands locations. The same applies to the Upstate locations.
The health system reached 9,383 daily COVID-19 vaccinations on Jan. 22. Their goal was 10,000 vaccinations per day.
According to Prisma, since the COVID-19 vaccine was made available in December, they have administered the most vaccinations of any provider in South Carolina with 68,867 doses as of Jan. 22, which is 25% of all the Pfizer vaccine doses received in the state.
Because of the quantity of doses administered, their supply is low, according to the health system.
Prisma Health will only take patients with scheduled appointments in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Vaccination Administration Management System (VAMS) for that day, and those who need their second dose. The second dose is recommended within 17-25 days after the first dose.
“We are asking the public for their patience, as right now the number of individuals who want a vaccine far, far exceeds the number of vaccine doses we have received from public officials,” said Dr. Saria Saccocio, Prisma Health chief medical officer for Ambulatory Services and co-chair of the Prisma Health Vaccine Task Force. “Today’s announcement means that across our entire system – Upstate and Midlands – we are no longer taking walk-ins.”
According to Prisma Health, if patients received a cancelation notice of their CDC VAMS appointment for your Prisma Health location, the appointment should be kept as scheduled.
“We have no excess inventory of vaccine,” Saccocio continued. “We only received 25% of what we requested from the state for this week’s vaccine supply. Next week we have requested 60,000 vaccine doses to meet our demand. This is a national vaccine supply problem that is affecting the entire country.”
Eligible people with an appointment must go to get their vaccine when schedule, and bring a QR code, according to Prisma Health. They also need some sort of ID.
Those 70 and older who do not have access to computers or smart phones should call 1-833-2PRISMA for assistance or reach out to community members.
The state is currently in Phase 1a, where those hospitalized age 65 and older and those community members aged 70 and older can receive their vaccination. Phase 1b will include essential personnel.
For more information about Prisma Health’s vaccination process, click here.
