By Samantha Connors, special to Statehouse Report | With more than 50 percent of South Carolinians now eligible to receive a COVID vaccination under phrase 1B of the state’s rollout plan, demand is high but supply remains low.
According to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) vaccine allocation dashboard, 94 percent of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines and 70 percent of Moderna doses have been administered. Based on data from the dashboard, there are currently 657, 171 Pfizer and Moderna appointments scheduled though roughly 300,000 doses of these two vaccines remain.
The state received 59,000 doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson Janssen vaccine, but with 44 percent of that vaccine already being utilized, the state needs to receive more shipments soon to keep up with demand.
DHEC reported 856 new cases out of 18,794 individual tests on Thursday, a positive rate of 6.3 percent.
Samantha Connors is web editor of the Charleston City Paper.
In other recent news:
S.C. House gives green light to open carry of handguns. House members voted 82-33 in favor of the open carry with training bill after hours of debate. Some Democrats joined Republicans in the vote. The bill would allow persons with concealed weapons permits to keep those guns visible in public. Hopkins Democratic Rep. Jermaine Johnson called the bill “no more than legalized hunting for Black people.” The bill now heads to the Senate. More: AP News.
S.C. legislators add sexual orientation back to hate crime bill. A group of South Carolina lawmakers have added back protections for gay or transgender people to a hate crime bill, five days after removing them. More: AP News.
S.C. has one of worst wage gaps in nation, study says. A recent study has found that South Carolina has one of the worst wage gaps for women among states and the District of Columbia. Business.org ranks the Palmetto State 40th with a gap of 23% — an average salary for women of $37,584 compared to $48,541 for men. This means that women essentially stop getting paid on Oct. 8 for the work year. More: The Greenville News.
S.C. jobless rate falls again to 5.3%. The S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce reported Monday January’s unemployment rate fell to 5.3%, down from December’s rate for 5.6%. Agency Director Dan Ellzey said in a statement, however, that the number of job searches made by people collecting jobless benefits is low and said the agency will soon enforce requirements for a certain number of job searches. More: AP News.
Hate crime bill urged by Emanuel AME Church pastor. The Clementa Pinckney Act, House Bill 3620, has passed the House’s Judiciary Committee and is on its way to debate on the House floor. The bill’s name honors one of the victims of the 2015 white supremacist rampage that killed nine people at a Charleston church. Pinckney was also a state senator. The bill seeks to add racial and other bias motivations for crimes to offenses. The state currently does not have any hate crime legislation, making it one of four in the nation. More: WCBD.
State flag design continues to spark debate. South Carolina senators may soon take up one of the most divisive issues to hit the state in years: standardizing the state flag’s iconic design. More: AP News.
Charleston shelter seeks $1M to fuel statewide no-kill effort. The Charleston Animal Society on Sunday announced plans to make South Carolina become a “no-kill state” for animals by 2024 through a $1 million challenge grant from the Petco Foundation. More: Charleston Currents.
S.C. lawmakers reject transgender sports ban bill. A South Carolina House committee rejected a bill Tuesday that would have prevented transgender students from playing on girls’ sports teams in middle and high schools. More: AP News.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!