Here’s when Prisma Health will start offering COVID vaccine to SC kids in the Midlands
Prisma Health, one of the largest health care providers in South Carolina, will offer COVID-19 vaccines to children age 5-11 beginning Thursday afternoon.
Free vaccines will be distributed at Prisma Health Children’s Hospital and their site at 19 Calhoun Street, both in Columbia.
No appointment will be necessary to get the COVID-19 vaccine at those sites, said Caughman Taylor, the medical director at the Children’s Hospital. Parents will not need an order or referral from another doctor, Taylor added.
The vaccine site at the Children’s Hospital will be open from 8 a.m. to noon and from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, Taylor said. The Calhoun Street location will be open 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
Currently, Midlands pediatric offices affiliated with Prisma are not offering the vaccine, though they will eventually, Taylor said.
Parents will need to sign and fill out a consent form for their child to be vaccinated.
For more information, visit Prisma Health’s website: visitprismahealth.org/vaccine.
On Wednesday, Taylor called for parents to get their children vaccinated.
Prisma officials have reported an increase in the number of children hospitalized with COVID-19, recording a record 15 children in the hospital at one time in the Midlands.
“This is a way to keep your children out of the hospital,” Taylor said.
The move follows the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s approval of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for the age group.
The vaccine is 91% effective in preventing COVID-19 in children age 5-11, according to the CDC. The newly eligible age group includes more than 436,300 children in South Carolina.
The federal government allocated 152,100 pediatric vaccine doses for South Carolina during its first week of availability. The state has already received 60,000 doses, and expects to have the rest by Friday. Thereafter, the state will receive weekly shipments.
Vaccines will be available to children at more than 250 vaccine providers, including several pediatricians and family practice providers, according to the state’s Department of Health and Environmental Control.
Many hospital systems, DHEC health departments, rural health clinics and mobile vaccine vendors are also receiving the pediatric vaccine. The health department is also partnering with the state Department of Education to hold vaccine clinics at schools that want to host.
Vaccine locations can be found at DHEC’s website: vaxlocator.dhec.sc.gov/
This story was originally published November 3, 2021 at 4:56 PM with the headline "Here’s when Prisma Health will start offering COVID vaccine to SC kids in the Midlands."
