SC hospitals will receive 20-25% of requested COVID-19 vaccine doses next week

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WMBF) - South Carolina hospitals will not be receiving the increased number of COVID-19 vaccine doses that they requested from the state next week, according to officials.

The South Carolina Hospital Association released a statement Friday night, explaining that the Department of Health and Environmental Control informed the group that it will receive “20-25% of the first doses they specified.”

This comes after hospitals requested more vaccines than what they were usually getting, due to the surge in appointments after those 70 and older were allowed to start receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.

“This morning we were advised by DHEC that hospitals will receive significantly less vaccine next week than they requested,” read the statement. “The state expects to receive the same amount of Pfizer vaccine next week that we have been getting, but hospital requests this week totaled four times that amount.”

The SCHA also clarified, saying hospitals will still receive 100% of the second doses they requested.

The group also says the state’s hospitals are aggressively ramping up vaccination efforts through walk-in events, online appointments and mass vaccination sites. The SCHA also says it will “do everything in our power to accelerate the distribution of these vaccines as part of the state’s vaccination plan.”

At this point, leaders with DHEC have said that the state has been receiving 63,000 doses of the vaccine every week.

The news comes on the deadline set by Gov. Henry McMaster for those in Phase 1a to set an appointment to be vaccinated.

As of Friday evening, over 313,000 total doses of the vaccine have been distributed in South Carolina between Pfizer and Moderna, with nearly half of them being administered across the state.

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