‘First in state’: Rock Hill opens COVID-19 vaccine clinic for public at Galleria Mall
Rock Hill will open a large coronavirus vaccine distribution site Friday at the Galleria Mall, making it the “first one in the state” of its kind, officials announced.
The city, in partnership with the state’s Department of Health and Environmental Control and Piedmont Medical Center, planned to open the site, formerly occupied by Goody’s and Home South, next week, but several state and local officials pushed to secure about 500 doses (and counting) in order to open Friday.
The clinic, at the back of the mall, will operate Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will follow DHEC’s guidelines for phased eligibility.
At this time, medical care workers and those 70 and older regardless of health status are eligible for the vaccine in South Carolina. Individuals must schedule an appointment and can now begin registering for one on Piedmont’s website.
“This is the first one in the state of South Carolina of this type,” DHEC 5th District Board Member Rick Lee told reporters during a press conference Thursday morning. “It is the model for other communities to follow if they choose to do the same thing. I’m optimistic that we will be very successful here and generate large numbers of York County, Chester County and Lancaster County citizens who’ve been inoculated.”
Appointments will be filled weekly based on the number of doses the site receives. At this time, the site has 500 doses to administer Friday and has ordered 2,000 additional doses, Lee told The Herald. But the number of doses available moving forward will be up to DHEC, he said.
“If the vaccine quantity is increased to South Carolina, it would be at that point that you could really ramp up and turn out a lot of vaccinations,” Lee said. “If, for some reason — and good fortune smiles on South Carolina — a lot of additional vaccine is made available to us, we can adjust here.”
‘Proven we can do it’
The city’s clinic has come to fruition less than 10 days after dozens of York County officials, led by S.C. Sen. Wes Climer, met at Piedmont with the same sentiment that the county needs a large vaccine distribution site.
“It is first and foremost, Piedmont Medical Center standing up, recognizing that at their footprint we could not vaccinate all the people that wanted to be vaccinated in York County,” Mayor John Gettys told reporters. “We had to find another location.”
Soon after, U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman’s son, Warren Norman, whose company recently bought the Galleria, offered the location for the clinic, Gettys said. Within days, the site was secured. A list of volunteers was made. Doses were acquired. Some details were still being finalized Thursday, but now, the site is as ready to go as it can be.
And aside from ensuring the clinic’s distribution goes smoothly, the city’s next focus is securing more shots, Gettys said.
“We’re going to ramp up, so we can make sure we can work through this as best we can and there’s quality coming out of here,” Gettys told The Herald. “Hopefully, by the time we’re in real good shape — a week from now — we’ll hear from DHEC and we can get some more vaccines.”
Piedmont has, as of Thursday, received 4,350 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine and administered 3,385 doses to staff — or 78%, according to DHEC’s report. With every allocation, the hospital has continued to administer more than 100% of its doses, Piedmont CEO Mark Nosacka said.
A tray of the Pfizer vaccine holds a minimum of 975 doses, but providers have found that some vials, thought to hold five doses, actually hold six or seven, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration later advised providers that it was acceptable to use all doses.
“We’ve proven we can do it,” Nosacka said. “We’ve taken what we’ve been doing at the hospital and brought that model over here, and we’re going to train volunteers to do those same jobs and we’re expanding the workforce that we had.”
Volunteers needed
The city needs volunteers — medical and non-medical — for various tasks at the clinic, including registration, data entry and answering phones. Rock Hill’s clinic also needs medical professionals to administer shots and observe patients, officials said.
“We’re going to have 51 volunteers in here, four days a week, putting 500 shots in arms,” Gettys said at the press conference. “And we want to do more. We want DHEC to give us more vaccines and we want to run a second shift. We want to build this out and make sure we get as many people, not just from York County, but around South Carolina in here.”
Those interested in volunteering at the clinic can sign up on the city’s website.
South Carolinians also can donate to the clinic on the York County Regional Chamber’s site.
“It’s time for us to take the fight to this virus, if you will, but it’s a more important time for us to show the people of our community this is not just words that they hear from our elected officials,” Gettys said. “It’s actions. It’s what separates us for most communities.”
This story was originally published January 21, 2021 at 3:11 PM.
