FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 22, 2020

 

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control today provided the following update on COVID-19 vaccine:

• From December 14-16, South Carolina received its first allocation of COVID-19 vaccine: a total of 42,900 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were received by direct shipments from the federal government. As of early this afternoon, 19,644 doses of vaccine have been administered to phase 1a individuals, with shots continuing to be administered each day.
• This week, South Carolina is receiving its second round of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Fifteen health care facilities are receiving a combined 30,225 doses of the vaccine to continue to administer to phase 1a individuals.
• The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) released its recommendations on December 20 for phase 1b individuals. South Carolina's Vaccine Advisory Committee is using this federal guidance to complete phase 1b guidelines in South Carolina, which will be provided as soon as it's finalized.
• Those phase 1a individuals who have received their Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will require a second shot 21 days later. Their second shot will come from a future allocation of vaccine that's specifically being held by the federal government as the second dose for those individuals, to ensure they receive both required doses.
• Any and all Moderna vaccine made available to South Carolina will be allocated to the CDC's Long-Term Care Program. This federal program works with CVS and Walgreens pharmacies to provide vaccine to a state's long-term care facilities. DHEC has a limited role in this federal program, other than dedicating doses of South Carolina's vaccine allotment to the program.
• It's expected that CVS and Walgreens will begin vaccinating long-term care facilities in South Carolina with Moderna vaccine beginning the week of December 28. DHEC has been told that skilled nursing facilities will be the first type of long-term care facilities vaccinated through this federal program. Dr. Brannon Traxler, interim Public Health Director, provided additional information about this federal long-term care facility program during a media update on Friday.
• We continue to expect that South Carolina will received between 200,000-300,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine, both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, by the end of the year, however, this estimate is subject to change.

DHEC will continue to provide regular updates on COVID-19 vaccine in South Carolina. A new data element is being developed that will provide vaccine-specific data reporting on the COVID-19 webpage, and this is anticipated to be available on the website at the beginning of January. For current vaccine information, visit scdhec.gov/vaxfacts.

 

South Carolina Daily COVID-19 Update (December 22, 2020)

DHEC today announced the following COVID-19 updates. As a reminder, DHEC will not report daily COVID-19 numbers on Christmas Day or New Year’s Day. Data that would be reported December 25 and January 1 will be available online the following day.

We encourage all South Carolinians to safely celebrate this holiday season and to remember the importance of mental and emotional health. It’s important to take breaks from watching, reading, or listening to news stories and social media and to make time to unwind. DHEC and the South Carolina Department of Mental Health provide several resources for coping with the prolonged stress of this public health crisis.

Today's cases and deaths (scdhec.gov/COVID19)

• New confirmed/probable total cases: 2,055/32 Summary click here
• New confirmed/probable total deaths: 15/0 Summary click here

Cumulative totals (scdhec.gov/COVID19)

• Confirmed and probable cases: 257,340/20,715
• Confirmed and probable deaths: 4,602/374
• Tests performed for South Carolinians: 3,370,118

Testing opportunities (scdhec.gov/findatest)

• Testing opportunities available statewide: 321

Percent positive (scdhec.gov/COVID19dashboard)

• 11,356 new individual test results reported statewide (not including antibody tests)
• 18.1% percent positive

Facility reports

• Hospital data (daily): scdhec.gov/COVID19hospitals
• Extended care facility data (Tuesdays and Fridays): scdhec.gov/nursinghomedata
• Assisted living visitation status (Tuesdays): scdhec.gov/nursinghomedata
• Private, public and charter schools (Tuesdays and Fridays): scdhec.gov/covid19schools

The information above as well as extensive reporting on county-level information, demographics and more is available at scdhec.gov/COVID19. The website is updated between 1 p.m.-3 p.m. weekdays and 11 a.m.-1 p.m. weekends. Visit scdhec.gov/COVID19vaccine for the latest vaccine information.

Additional information and resources

• scemd.org
• scdmh.net
• accelerate.sc.gov

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