SC Gov. McMaster orders ‘nonessential’ businesses to close to fight coronavirus

Gov. Henry McMaster issued a sweeping order at a press conference on Tuesday, closing down all nonessential businesses in South Carolina due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The order, one of the most extensive McMaster has issued in recent weeks, will apply to thousands of businesses across the state starting at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, April 1, and lasting 15 days.

Businesses to be closed include gyms, spas, nightclubs, barber shops, hair salons, tattoo parlors, waxing salons, massage centers, fitness centers, bowling alleys, arcades, racetracks, indoor children’s play areas, theaters, planetariums, museums, tourist attractions and performing arts centers.

This continues McMaster’s step-by-step approach to fighting the virus, but it is not a stay-at-home order like dozens of other states have issued or one that several other elected leaders have called for. McMaster says that’s because he wants to be as least disruptive to people’s lives as possible.

“We’ve whittled it down to where we thought we could get the biggest impact and with the least disruption,” McMaster said of the list of business he’s shutting down. “We know there’s disruption for a lot of people, but we think that in our approach, which is to maximize efforts aggressively against the disease while attempting to avoid all but necessary dislocations is the right path to follow.”

Cities around the state, such as Columbia and Charleston, have issued stay-at-home orders. But while McMaster continued to urge people to practice social distancing measures and avoid large gatherings, he once again declined to make it an order.

“We’re not ordering people to stay at home, but from the very beginning, we’ve been telling people to stay at home, recommending it, everyone just about that’s spoken here has said that. And a lot of people are staying home,” McMaster said.

McMaster acknowledged Tuesday that some of the businesses included in his order have already closed in response to the spread of the coronavirus. Concert venues such as the Colonial Life Arena and the Koger Center have postponed events, and the Columbia Museum of Art closed its doors through May 15.

“A lot of these businesses probably are not open. We know a lot of gymnasiums are already closed up. A lot of businesses have taken it upon themselves to go ahead and close for a number of reasons, one of which is they don’t want to be a source of spreading the virus and a location for spreading the virus. And another is, there’s no customers coming to see them, so it’s financially wise to close down,” McMaster said.

For those that have not closed, McMaster said a group within the state’s Department of Commerce will decide how to classify businesses within the next 24 hours. Until they are informed, they can stay open, he said. Businesses can contact the Department of Commerce to get a clarification, he said.

The executive order does not apply to grocery stores, drug stores, pharmacies and other businesses deemed essential. Takeout orders from restaurants and window orders from fast food restaurants will still be allowed. Big box stores such as Walmart and Target, which sell groceries and drugs, will also be allowed to stay open, as will banks and gas stations.

The State had previously reported McMaster’s plans, citing a source familiar with the governor’s plans. After the order’s 15 days are up, McMaster said he will “take those situations as they come” when deciding to extend the closures or not.

In recent weeks, McMaster has closed schools, indoor dining rooms in restaurants and, on Monday, severely limited public access to beach ramps and to South Carolina’s hundreds of miles of ocean front.

At Tuesday’s press conference, S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control state epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell told reporters her agency is not keeping a count of how many South Carolina front line doctors and nurses have been infected by the coronavirus. She did not explain why DHEC is not tracking those casualties.

Bell also continued to say DHEC would not make public any more information than it has on the locations of where coronavirus patients live.

On Tuesday, the number of deaths from the highly contagious coronavirus in the U.S. passed 3,700 and the number of cases are more than 186,000. At the beginning of March, there were no more than a handful of cases nationwide.

President Trump has said the number of deaths in the U.S. could number 200,000 by the time the pandemic runs its course. Cases in South Carolina also surpassed 1,000 Tuesday, with 22 reported deaths.

Some of McMaster’s other orders concerning the coronavirus include:

▪ March 13 — McMaster declared that coronavirus was a public emergency.

▪ March 15 — McMaster ordered all public schools in South Carolina closed.

▪ March 17 — McMaster ordered all indoor dining in restaurants to cease and limited public gatherings at government facilities to no more than 50 people.

▪ March 21 — McMaster issued an order promoting social distancing, or the keeping of at least six feet between people to avoid spreading the virus, which is transmitted through touch and tiny aerosol droplets in peoples’ breath.

▪ March 23 — McMaster prohibited public gatherings of 3 or more people.

▪ March 27 — McMaster directed all people entering South Carolina from areas where major coronavirus outbreaks had occurred should stay in isolation or self-quarantine for 14 days.

This story was originally published March 31, 2020 at 2:25 PM.