USC will start ramping up on-campus vaccinations Monday. Here’s what you need to know

The University of South Carolina will ramp up on-campus COVID-19 vaccinations Monday, school officials said Friday.

The move follows the statewide transition on March 8 to phase 1b of coronavirus vaccinations, which includes teachers, people 55 years old and older, frontline workers, people between 16 and 64 who have pre-existing conditions and more.

At USC, that will include all professors, graduate assistants, and other frontline workers whose job requires them to be face-to-face with others within six feet for more than 15 minutes at a time, according to a letter USC President Robert Caslen published online earlier this week.

That means most students — save for those with a pre-existing condition — will not be eligible for the vaccine until later phases.

Those who are not affiliated with USC, except for eligible spouses of USC employees, will also not be able to receive the vaccine on campus.

However, USC officals urge anyone who is eligible for the vaccine to get it as soon as possible, even if they can’t get it right away on campus, said Rebecca Caldwell, USC’s Director of Strategic Health Initiatives.

USC won’t be able to vaccinate every eligible person as it has only been guaranteed 200 Moderna doses per week, though the university has asked for more doses, Caldwell said. Statewide, there are as many as 2.7 million people who become eligible for the coronavirus vaccine starting Monday, according to documents Caldwell presented during a Friday town hall.

“It will take a while for us to get enough vaccines,” Caldwell said.

Since the Moderna vaccine is a two-dose vaccine, those who receive the first dose on campus will automatically be scheduled for a follow-up dose, Caldwell said.

“Once you get your first dose at a site, you want to get your second dose at that site,” Caldwell said. “You’ll leave with that second appointment.”

Once USC employees or students receive both vaccine doses, they will no longer be required to submit to a monthly COVID-19 test, Caldwell said.

In order to sign up for an appointment, eligible recipients can register at USC’s MyHealthSpace, which will also provide the time and place of the appointment.

Since USC resumed classes this semester, cases have been down, especially compared to the beginning of the fall semester, when active case numbers exceeded 1,400 in early September. As of March 1, USC has seen 1,311 COVID-19 cases on campus since Jan. 1, according to USC’s online dashboard. As of March 1, there are 43 active coronavirus cases on campus, according to the dashboard.

Both Caslen and Caldwell attributed the controlled state of COVID-19 on campus to contact tracing and a requirement that nearly everyone living or working on campus get tested monthly.

“Our compliance rate has been tremendously high for both faculty and staff and students,” Caldwell said of mandatory COVID-19 testing.