South Carolina Hospital Immunizing COVID-19 Staff Starting This Week: Answered Your Question | News

Low-country hospitals plan to start vaccination of some staff as early as Monday, launching a strategy that expects experts to protect front-line workers from the coronavirus. ..

At Low Percent Francis Healthcare, leaders expect the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to ship earlier this week, and spokesman Andy Lions said healthcare professionals will start taking it soon.

Workers at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) can begin registration at noon on Sunday to be vaccinated, according to an email sent to staff and obtained by Post and Courier. The hospital ships as early as Monday and is ready to be distributed from Tuesday.

MUSC is ready to receive 4,875 doses of vaccination and will prioritize staff in contact with COVID-19 patients as part of their duties. The two-shot vaccine is free and optional.

Dr. Danielle Scheurer, Chief Quality Officer of MUSCHealth, said: “I think the vaccine inventory will reach people as soon as they first get it.

The vaccine received the FDA’s first emergency license for the COVID-19 vaccine on Friday.

Even with this weekend’s announcement, it will still be months before enough people to get a pandemic in the rear-view mirror are vaccinated.

The state initially expects to receive sufficient doses for at least 200,000 people, but is considered important to save the lives of patients and qualifies as a top priority group, including those at greatest risk of death. Not enough for everyone with.

Because of these restrictions, the state health care department leaves the decision on which healthcare workers to be vaccinated first to the hospital manager.

Dr. Linda Bell, the state’s chief epidemiologist, said:

For example, she said, rural hospitals with limited staff may need to make decisions that are very different from large medical systems “with deeper benches.”

In its first phase, hospital workers take shots at work, and under federal agreement, CVS and Walgreens pharmacists go to nursing homes to vaccinate residents and staff. As availability increases, so does the number of places people can go to get vaccinated.

Let’s see how this works and how to get the information.

How are eligibility groups classified?

The rollout is gradual. The first officially labeled “Phase 1A” qualifications include front-line healthcare professionals, nursing home residents, and the first responders involved in emergency medical services.

Phase 1B envelops the rest of the health care workers and first responders, providing critical public services such as utilities and sanitary workers, bus drivers, food processing employees, and homeless shelters. And add people who live and work in group environments such as prisons and prisons.

A person’s age and health are also beginning to be determinants, with eligibility for people over 74 years and at least two chronic conditions including unresolved cancer, kidney disease, COPD, diabetes, disability, heart disease, HIV / AIDS. It extends to some people. , Obesity and sickle cell disease.

Phase 2 adds teachers and other school employees, kindergarten to college, as well as nursery teachers, pharmacists, postal workers, grocery stores, and restaurant employees.

The age limit is lowered to over 65 years old. The list of eligible health conditions grows longer, and only one of them is needed to add asthma, hypertension, cystic fibrosis, and autoimmune, liver, or lung disease.

The vaccine is not widely available to other adults who want it until “Phase 3”.

All of this is still subject to change, according to the public reading of McMaster’s procedures as of December 9. Depending on federal approval, shipping size, and the number of people who want shots, the time it takes to move from one phase to the next is not yet known.

According to DHEC, Phase 1A alone can last for weeks.

The state will receive weekly shipments.

When can my child be vaccinated?

It’s a big unknown, but probably not until the beginning of next year.

On Thursday, the Federal Trade Commission approved a Pfizer vaccine for people over the age of 16, and some members objected to approving shots aged 16 and 17 because they hadn’t participated in the test at all until September. I was there. And the risk of getting a serious illness from COVID-19 is low. However, the overwhelming majority determined that the benefits of vaccination of teenagers were worth the uncertainty.

New vaccines and drugs are usually first tested only in adults.

The child’s immune system is more active than the adult’s immune system, and responses vary by age group from infants to teens. Further research is needed to assess the safety and effective dosage of children.

Pfizer began testing youth up to the age of 12 with federal permission in October. Modana began testing for vaccines this month at the age of 12-17. Testing for younger children is not scheduled to begin until next year.

So how do you know when you are eligible?

State public health agencies regularly post vaccine updates Web page: scdhec.gov/covid19/covid-19-vaccination..

However, DHEC officials recognize that this is not enough, especially for the state’s most vulnerable and rural population. Other plans to inform people include direct mailers, printed advertisements in weekly newspapers, announcements of public services on radio and television, billboards, messages at gas stations, and dissemination of words through religious leaders. I will.

DHEC call center employees should also have the latest vaccine information. The “care line” number is 1-855-472-3432.

People can also get answers about the vaccine stage via email.Send a question to [email protected]..

Agents are also considering sending push alerts to their mobile phones each time a new group is eligible, as well as emergency alerts that issue weather disaster alerts.

The institution has promised $ 5.7 million for an education campaign.

Where can I shoot?

Providers must obtain federal approval to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. As of Friday, 307 locations were approved, including hospitals, pharmacies, emergency medical centers, and private clinics. DHEC wants the numbers to continue to grow to meet demand as availability increases.

The hospital receives the first shipment. However, DHEC is asking people not to call the hospital. If you are eligible to get one of those shots, your employer will contact you directly.

Citing security concerns, DHEC does not provide any other details about where the vaccine will go early, but promises to advertise everywhere once it becomes widely available. ..

The agency is still developing plans on how pharmacies and other sites screen people for eligibility related to employment and health issues, especially for those who do not have a primary care physician.

Does the first shipment cover all nursing homes?

Distribution goes to the nursing home in alphabetical order. Therefore, according to DHEC, these are all officially part of “Phase 1a”, but not all may be received at the same time.

Also, the Assisted Living Center has been closed as well since March, but vaccine priorities are treated differently.

Assisted residents are in the early stages, but only after all nursing homes have been taken care of. According to DHEC, federal recommendations consider nursing home residents to be the most medically vulnerable because they need care due to injury, disability, or illness.

What is the difference between COVID-19 vaccines?

Pfizer vaccines were first approved for widespread use and pose unprecedented logistics problems. Known as an ultra-low temperature vaccine, it decomposes rapidly at high temperatures and should be stored at -70 degrees Celsius (-94 degrees Fahrenheit).

Not all South Carolina hospitals have such ultra-low temperature storage capacity. But they don’t necessarily need it.

Vaccines are shipped in GPS-enabled containers and track location and temperature. The shipper himself, packed with dry ice, can use it as a temporary storage area for up to 30 days, but the dry ice must be replenished upon arrival and every 5 days. Then move it to the fridge and it will expire in 5 days.

Facilities with ultra-low temperature freezers can be stored in vials for up to 6 months from the date of manufacture if transferred immediately upon arrival.

The Moderna vaccine, which is expected to have a green light soon, arrives frozen and can be maintained at -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit) for 30 days in normal cold temperatures.

According to DHEC, nursing homes will be vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine.

For best protection, you need two shots, both 21-day intervals for Pfizer and 28-day intervals for Modana.

According to the FDA, a single dose provides some protection from COVID-19, but the duration is unknown and the efficacy jumps to 95% after the second dose.

That means that 1 in 20 people do not develop immunity, so health officials urge people to continue wearing masks after taking both doses, unless otherwise noted.