Spartanburg Regional: South Carolina vows to address COVID vaccine shortage in county

Spartanburg hospital officials said Wednesday the state health department is doing everything it can to correct a shortage of vaccines that prompted a Spartanburg County councilman to raise a red flag.

As of earlier this week, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control reported more than 1 million vaccines have been distributed statewide during phase 1a of the rollout that affects 1.3 million South Carolinians.

Charleston County received 169,713 doses; Greenville County 135,542 doses; and Spartanburg County 30,740 doses.  Besides Charleston and Greenville, five other counties received more vaccines than Spartanburg.

"My biggest concern I had last week laid out the inequity of vaccine distribution by DHEC to Spartanburg County," said Councilman David Britt, who on Tuesday received his second COVID-19 shot at the Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System's vaccine clinic at USC Upstate. 

"We are the fifth largest county by population, and we ranked 12th in the state for delivered vaccines. This was totally unacceptable and was putting our residents at risk."

DHEC spokeswoman Laura Renwick on Thursday acknowledged "lengthy conversations" with Spartanburg hospital officials late last week.

"We've done an in-depth analysis of their allocations each week," she said. "It appears there are some weeks when the facility could have been entitled to more second doses than it asked for, or DHEC subsequently provided. We are working with the facility this week and next to endure they receive all that they are entitled."

Vaccine rollout update

Dr. Chistopher Lombardozzi,  chief medical officer at Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System, and David Church, system vice president, gave hospital trustees an update Wednesday on the rollout of the vaccination program that began in mid-January.

More:South Carolina leans on honor system as majority of state now COVID vaccine eligible

They said the hospital system has the ability to administer up to 10,000 vaccinations a week.

On Monday, 2.7 million residents in phase 1b – including teachers – become eligible to get vaccinated. 

Britt said he and Church worked with the governor's office last week to resolve the disparity so that Spartanburg residents don't get turned away due to the a shortage.

"They responded quickly with the help of key officials within DHEC and we received 5,850 doses on Friday," Britt said. 

Church said an additional 1,150 doses were expected to be delivered Thursday to the hospital system.

In response to questions after the trustees meeting, the hospital's media relations department said Spartanburg County is not immune to vaccine shortages.

More:Spartanburg's VCOM opens Northside clinic. Site will provide COVID-19 vaccine to community.

"Like other healthcare systems across the state, Spartanburg Regional's ability to vaccinate our community is limited by the number of doses we receive from the federal allocations each week," the department stated in an email response.

"Currently, those shipments are not meeting the demand among the eligible population in our community.

"Spartanburg Regional continues to manage its appointment schedule at the clinic at USC Upstate carefully. At this time, we have not had to postpone vaccination appointments due to lack of supply."

A business priority

Britt, who is also co-chair of Bringing Back the Burg task force, said making sure there is an adequate vaccine supply is crucial to reaching its goal of getting at least 75% of the county's residents vaccinated. 

Church said the Centers for Disease Control estimates that at least 70% of the population must be vaccinated in order to achieve herd immunity - when enough people become immune to make the virus spread unlikely.

"I know it is imperative to get 75% of our residents vaccinated so we can safely get businesses and industry back to normal as soon as possible," Britt said. "All we were asking DHEC to do was give us our fair share. The way it was going, it was not what we needed to happen, and thankfully, DHEC responded fast."

More:South Carolina to expand vaccine access Monday to teachers, people 55 and older

Church said the USC Upstate vaccine clinic has been open more than two months and has delivered an estimated 30,000 vaccines so far. In addition, ReGenesis Health Care and Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) are providing vaccines to underserved communities, he said.

He said the hospital system has been administering Pfizer vaccines, and that an estimated 75 pharmacies and retailers in the area are offering Moderna vaccines. 

He said none of the vaccines are from Johnson and Johnson, which recently received federal approval,

More:First Spartanburg school nurses, staff members receive COVID-19 vaccinations

Lombardozzi said there is virtually no difference between the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. The main difference, he said, is Pfizer vaccines are stored at much colder temperatures.

SRHS ready to deliver

Hospital officials did not say how many vaccines will be needed to vaccinate everyone who is eligible. But Church said SRHS has the ability to do 10,000 vaccinations each week.

Church said, according to DHEC, a total of 41,000 Spartanburg County residents have been vaccinated. With an estimated population of 330,000 people, that's close to 12%. Statewide, DHEC reports 16.4% of residents have started their vaccination, and 7.8% have completed their vaccination.

Meanwhile, Lombardozzi said he is confident that everyone who wants a shot will be able to get one.

"We have been very intentional about making sure that everyone who is eligible would be able to get a vaccine," Lombardozzi said.

Church added, "We're fishing every day for more vaccine. We stand ready. As we receive more vaccine, we can expand."

Contact Bob Montgomery at bob.montgomery@shj.com