Covid Vaccine - Great News!

Thanks to your advocacy efforts and our partners advocacy efforts, SC Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) revised the vaccine distribution phases.  Individuals with brain injury and individuals with other types of disabilities will be able to get vaccinated sooner as part of Phase 1B.  Individuals in Phase 1B will be able to make appointments on Monday, March 8, 2021 to get the vaccine. If you have a brain injury, you qualify in the other severe High-Risk Disability Category. (See below in red)

Phase 1b includes:

• Anyone aged 55 and up 
• People with increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease 
• People aged 16-54 with one or more of the following high-risk medical conditions: 

Cancer (current, not a history of cancer), chronic kidney disease (any stage), chronic lung disease, diabetes (Type 1 and Type 2), Down syndrome, heart disease (congestive heart disease, coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathy, pulmonary hypertension), HIV/AIDS, solid organ transplant, obesity (BMI >30), pregnancy, sickle cell disease. 

• People who have a developmental or other severe high-risk disability that makes developing severe life-threatening illness or death from COVID-19 infection more likely 
• Frontline workers with increased occupational risk; frontline workers with increased occupational risk are people who: 

Must be in-person at their place of work, and 

Perform a job that puts them at increased risk of exposure due to their frequent, close (less than6 feet) and ongoing (more than 15 minutes) contact with others in the work environment 

Examples of frontline workers include but are not limited to school staff and daycare workers, manufacturing workers, grocery store workers, law enforcement officers, etc. 

• Individuals at increased risk in settings where people are living and working in close contact 

Residents and workers in group home settings for the mentally or physically disabled or those with behavioral or substance abuse conditions 

Workers and residents in homeless shelters 

Workers and residents in community training homes 

State and local correctional facility staff with direct inmate contact 

Correctional and immigration detention facility inmates 

Migrant farmworkers living in shared housing or reliant on shared transportation 

• All workers in healthcare and community health settings who have routine, direct patient contact and were not vaccinated in Phase 1a 

Until enough of us get vaccinated, we must all continue to:

• Wear masks, 
• Stay six feet away from others, 
• Get tested and stay home when you’re sick, and 
• Avoid crowds. 

Click here for vaccine locator information from SC DHEC.