COLUMBIA, S.C. – The South Carolina National Guard increased the number of COVID-19 vaccination sites to four the week of Jan. 11 with the addition of the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Lancaster and Chester.
On day 308 of operations in response to the pandemic, the SCNG has supported more than 1,000 missions across the state.
This month, the SCNG began vaccinating civilians at Tidelands Health Waccamaw and Georgetown. As of Jan. 15, the SCNG has vaccinated more than 1,218 civilians in one week.
"The South Carolina National Guard is honored to support two new vaccination sites at MUSC Chester and MUSC Lancaster," said U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Van McCarty, the adjutant general for South Carolina. "As our medics demonstrated this past week at Tidelands Health in Waccamaw and Georgetown, they are trained, ready, and competent to assist our health care providers to meet Governor (Henry) McMaster's intent of increasing the public's access to the COVID-19 vaccine."
McCarty said hitting the 1,000-mission mark was a record for this type of operation for the SCNG.
"This is the longest our Soldiers have been mobilized in support of a Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA) mission in South Carolina," he said. "Our Soldiers take great pride in knowing they're making a difference in the fight against COVID-19 in our state."
Since March, the SCNG has maintained an active-duty force of just under 500 Soldiers and Airmen. They have assisted with COVID-19 testing of more than 250,000 people, provided medical surge personnel to 10 hospitals, medically screened 229 congregate care patients and more than 417,000 prison inmates, distributed more than 200,000 masks, 31,968 shields, and 205,825 gloves, among other missions.