1st coronavirus vaccine shipments may be in South Carolina by mid-December

South Carolina's public health leaders are urging the continued use of masks before and after the first COVID-19 vaccine doses arrive to the state as cases and deaths continue to increase.

As has been the projection nationwide, the state Department of Health and Environmental Control is saying large-scale dissemination of the vaccine will not be available to the general public of the Palmetto State until sometime next spring, with frontline workers and the most vulnerable, including nursing home residents, being first in line.

DHEC officials said during a media call Thursday afternoon they are expecting the first shipments to arrive in South Carolina in the next couple weeks, but they wouldn't say how many doses they will initially get until they have them.

Stephen White, the state's immunization director, said the state is likely to receive doses from both Pfizer and Moderna, assuming they receive emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration.

Initial shipments won't be enough for all health care workers and nursing home residents, so leaders at the local level will have to decide, for example, which nurses get vaccinated, according to Jane Kelly, assistant state epidemiologist.

Kelly said the next round of South Carolinians to get vaccines when available may be people with existing health conditions, which makes them more likely to get sicker or die if they get COVID-19. The second stage could also potentially include older people and people living in communal settings, such as group homes and prisons.

In the meantime, officials said, it is still important to wear a mask around others and practice physical distancing this winter.

The continued warnings come as cases are surging again almost to the summertime peak.

DHEC announced 1,754 new confirmed cases on Thursday, including 47 cases in Sumter.

With a seven-day moving average of 1,634, the state is approaching July's peak, when the state's highest single-day case count was recorded at 2,322 confirmed cases.

Thursday's daily update also included 21 more deaths statewide, including a middle-aged victim from Sumter who died on Nov. 28. DHEC defines middle-aged as between 35 and 64.

According to Johns Hopkins University, The Associated Press and other outlets, more than 3,100 American deaths were recorded Thursday, the most in a single day yet. The number of Americans who are hospitalized with the virus also broke records, eclipsing 100,000 for the first time as new cases have been topping 200,000 a day.

Since the pandemic began, 208,435 South Carolinians have tested positive for the virus, and 4,145 have died.

The state's 90.0% recovery rate represents 132,161 people for whom DHEC has symptom data of the 223,063 confirmed cases as of Dec. 1. Of those they have data on, 3,076 have died. Of the remaining 129,085, 90.9% have recovered, and 9.1% remain ill.

Lee County has recorded 832 of those confirmed cases and 37 deaths, and Clarendon County has had 1,353 positive cases and 68 deaths.

Sumter County now has 4,189 confirmed cases. The virus has claimed 97 Sumterites.

Sumter has had two high daily case counts in a row, and while fluctuating, the seven-day average is overall slowly increasing.

Linda Bell, state epidemiologist, said Thursday "we have to do some immediate things" to prevent cases from rising even higher.

"Masks do work," she said, citing DHEC studies that compare case counts in areas of the state that have a mask requirement and those that don't.

Even once people start getting the vaccine, it will be important to continue wearing a mask until enough people are vaccinated because trials have only tested whether the vaccine prevents you from getting sick, not whether it prevents you from transmitting the virus to others.