NEWS BRIEFS: Harris to be in S.C. Monday for vaccination tour kickoff

Staff reports  |  Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Greenville Monday to kick off a national “Month of Action” tour to get more Americans vaccinated against COVID-19.  She is expected to deliver remarks at 12:15 p.m. at an event at the Phillis Wheatley Community center.

Harris, right, will be in Greenville today.

South Carolina falls short of the national average of 64 percent of adults who are vaccinated.  According to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, about 46 percent of South Carolinians over age 11 have been vaccinated with at least one shot.  Some 39 percent have completed their vaccinations.  A quarter of the state’s population also is thought to have natural immunity after having contracted the virus.  Still, about 1.8 million South Carolinians have no protection from a vaccination or natural immunity, experts say.

In announcing the Month of Action, the White House said it is trying to get 70 percent of  Americans vaccinated by July 4.  The effort includes free child care for people getting vaccinated, longer hours at pharmacies, more education and outreach, and business incentives.

On Thursday, state health officials reported 119 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus Thursday and zero confirmed deaths. With 5,507 tests reported, 3 percent were positive.  Since the beginning of the pandemic, South Carolina has had almost 500,000 people get COVID-19 cases and more than 8,600 confirmed deaths.

In other recent news:

Law school improves bar passage rate. Twenty of 23 December graduates of the Charleston School of Law who took the bar exam in February passed — an impressive 87 percent, a record high for the school.  “We are immensely proud of these results, which are a testament to the hard work and dedication of our students,” Dean Larry Cunningham said in a statement. “Throughout their path to the profession, graduates were taught by Charleston’s highly ranked faculty and a curriculum that is grounded in the fundamentals of law practice.” In February, the American Bar Association, which accredits law schools, found the school was back in compliance with its accreditation standard on bar passage rates, with 2019 graduates having, at the time of reporting in January, an 80 percent passage rate.

Ports Authority has record May.  The S.C. Ports Authority  had its strongest May ever for containers, moving 230,870 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) across Wando Welch Terminal, North Charleston Terminal and Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal. The authority has handled nearly 2.32 million TEUs thus far in fiscal year 2021, from July 1 through May 31, up 6.85 percent from the year prior.

Santee Cooper survives as public company.  South Carolina’s state-owned utility, Santee Cooper, has had an uncertain future since July 2017, when halted construction before the completion of a nuclear project left the company billions in debt. More: SC Public Radio | The Post and Courier.

Safety concerns remain over S.C.’s new open carry law.  The 90 days between the day the bill was signed into law and its implementation allows more time for law enforcement and permit holders to learn what the law changes and what it does not. More: SC Public Radio.

SLED says 2020 saw higher rate of violent crime. The State Law Enforcement Division has released a report showing that violent crime increased in 2020, and local departments are saying it could be even higher for 2021.  More: The Sumter Item.