Vaccine clinic to be held locally next week…finallyFree Access

A COVID-19 vaccine clinic will be held in Cherokee County February 5-6. For more information about scheduling an appointment, call 1-855-472- 3432.

Amid growing frustrations on the lack of a COVID-19 vaccine provider in Cherokee County, South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) announced a vaccine clinic will be held at the county health department Friday, Feb. 5 and Saturday, Feb. 6.

Those wishing to receive the vaccine who qualify as part of Phase 1A can call DHEC’s Care Line at 1-855-472-3432 for help in finding contact information for scheduling an appointment. A COVID-19 only DHEC phone line is set to go live at noon Friday. That number will be posted to The Ledger website and Facebook page.

The number of vaccines is limited and will be available only to those who make an appointment. A representative of DHEC did not know the number of available appointment slots.

Many Cherokee County residents ages 70 and older, along with caregivers for those individuals, have been disappointed with the lack of vaccine availability in the county since Phase 1A was amended to include that age group.

While most residents understand the vaccine is in short supply, they don’t understand why an allotted amount could not be made available at a Cherokee County location.

“It’s about time vaccines will be available in Cherokee County,” said Linda Mullins. “Many of us did not understand why you had to go out of town to receive the vaccination.

“A lot of people over 70 are not comfortable driving to Spartanburg, especially afterdark.If youhada4p.m.appointment chances are you would not get back to Gaffney until after dark.”

Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System, which operates Cherokee Medical Center in Gaffney, said a vaccine clinic has not been set up in Cherokee County at this time due to the limited supply.

“As more vaccine becomes available from the federal government, Spartanburg Regional will evaluate additional vaccine locations in the Upstate,” Regional officials said.

Regional is currently operating a “centralized vaccine clinic” on the campus of the University of South Carolina — Upstate, and while Cherokee, Spartanburg and Union county residents in Phase 1A can be vaccinated from Regional’s clinic, they are forced to drive to the Spartanburg location to receive the dose.

“Why can’t the vaccine be readily available to us here in Cherokee County?” asked Ronald Baker, another local resident. ‘“I’m 70 and having issues getting an appointment and my wife is 67 with several underlying medical conditions and still doesn’t qualify. It seems like we (Cherokee County) are being forgotten. And what about our teachers?”

The state Department of Health and Environmental Control says Phase 1B includes an estimated 573,501 frontline essential workers. Those include educators, first responders like law enforcement officers and firefighters not vaccinated in Phase 1A, mail workers and grocery store employees.

While Phase 1B is expected to start in early spring, the state has not said what order all those groups could get the vaccine.

“We do hope to be able to offer a vaccination clinic once the vaccination is available for school staff,” said Bessie Westmoreland, Cherokee County School District executive director for student services.

The Palmetto State Teachers Association (PSTA) and South Carolina Education Association (SCEA) are pushing for Gov. Henry McMaster to prioritize vaccinating all teachers against COVID-19. The teacher advocacy groups note many educators are on medical leave due to a high risk for COVID-19 exposure. Schools are experiencing staff shortages every week from staff quarantining due to positive cases or exposure to the virus.

“This is not a request that we make lightly as we fully appreciate and understand that the need for vaccine access in our state is currently far greater than the available supply,” according to a Jan. 22 letter to the governor from PSTA executive director Kathy Maness and SCEA President Sherry East. “… There is a critical need to provide safe face-to-face educational opportunities for students across our state and vaccine access for educators would play a significant role in making something closer to normal school operations attainable.”

South Carolina has been receiving 62,600 doses of the vaccine weekly. Beginning next week, that number will increase 16% to 72,600 doses, DHEC’s interim director of public health Dr. Brannon Traxler said Wednesday.

“The demand for vaccines still exceeds the supply South Carolina gets from the federal government,” she said.

As of Wednesday, DHEC was still evaluating how the additional 10,000 doses would be allocated.

There are hundreds of enrolled providers across the state waiting to give the vaccine, and once more doses are available, those providers will be activated, according to Traxler.

According to DHEC’s vaccine locator, there are five providers in Cherokee County, though none are currently accepting appointments, the map shows.

Ingles and Publix pharmacies across the state are accepting appointments for the vaccine, but the two Ingles in Cherokee County do not have pharmacies and there is no Publix in the county.

President Joe Biden announced Tuesday the U.S. is increasing vaccine delivery and expects to be able to vaccinate 300 million Americans by the end of summer or early fall.