SC hospital system shuts down half of COVID-19 vaccine sites

COLUMBIA, S.C. — (AP) — South Carolina’s largest hospital system is shutting down half of its coronavirus vaccine sites after vaccine shipments have become unreliable.

Prisma Health officials said Thursday that they were consolidating 12 sites across the state down to six over the course of the next three weeks because of delayed shipments and short supplies.

Appointments that are already on the schedule will be moved to the nearest open site, Prisma Health said in a statement.

Most hospitals and large vaccine providers in the state get their vaccine doses shipped from the federal government.

The federal government has also told South Carolina and other southeastern states that severe weather could delay vaccine shipments over the next few days, impacting two shipping hubs in Memphis, Tennessee and Louisville, Kentucky.

The state will still receive its full weekly vaccine allotments, although some providers could have to reschedule appointments due to the shipping delays, officials with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control said Thursday.

South Carolina is currently receiving about 31,200 first doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 45,200 of the Moderna vaccine weekly.

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