McMaster calls on DHEC to provide more information on COVID-19 vaccine count, locations

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WMBF) – South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has sent a letter to the chairman of the Department of Health and Environmental Control, demanding more information about the COVID-19 vaccine distribution in the state.

On Thursday, DHEC provided an update on vaccines, stating that South Carolina has received a little over 200,000 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Out of those, 39,100 doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been administered to critical healthcare workers.

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The Moderna vaccine is being given to residents and staff in long-term care facilities. The number of Moderna vaccines administered have not been released because it’s being done through a federal program. Those numbers are expected to be released last week.

But McMaster said the state health agency needs to be doing more to provide critical vaccine information to South Carolinians.

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“I ask that the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control immediately make available to the public a complete accounting of the status and locations of every COVID-19 vaccine dose that has been received and distributed in the state,” McMaster wrote to Chairman Mark Elam.

He added that this information should be immediately disclosed on DHEC’s online COVID-19 information dashboard as well.

Stephen White, the immunizations director at DHEC, addressed the creation of a COVID-19 vaccine dashboard on Thursday, stating that it’s in the works.

“We anticipate that as we continue to move along and move forward with this response with the vaccine allocations, that we’ll have other data reporting elements that we can help share to provide information to the general public as well. So, we hope that those will be coming soon on the DHEC website in the coming couple of weeks,” White said.

He said it will provide information such as the number of doses the state has received and the number that have been administered.

WMBF News will be sure to alert you when DHEC’s COVID-19 vaccine dashboard is up and running.

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