As COVID-19 cases rise, SC DHEC warns public to ‘hunker down,’ wear a mask when out
State health officials warned Wednesday of a recent uptick in trends marking the spread of the coronavirus in South Carolina and urged South Carolinians to take precautions.
Speaking to reporters on a Wednesday conference call, Department of Health and Environmental Control officials said they’ve seen an increase in the number of novel coronavirus cases as the state has worked to open back the economy.
That increase, they said, could stem from increased efforts to test more people, but it also could stem from the public’s relaxation of precautions recommended to keep people safe.
As the state reopened its economy, the state has increased testing, already completing testing of every nursing home resident and staff member as well as launching mobile sites for anyone to get tested.
However, the percentage of tests coming back positive each day also has trended up, pointing to the possibility that the disease is spreading at increasing rates.
“We do think some of those increased case counts represent a true increase and likely because we have seen a lot more congregating and not maintaining social distancing, not masking,” Director of Public Health Joan Duwve told reporters.
She added: “Those things are really important if we want to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 in the state.”
The warnings from state health officials came as DHEC reported Wednesday that the state has reached 12,651 positive COVID-19 infections and 518 deaths from the disease.
Over the last month Gov. Henry McMaster has lifted restrictions put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus. People are allowed to dine-in at restaurants, amusements have been allowed to open, salons and barber shops can serve customers, and beaches and pools have been allowed to open.
However, the latest infection numbers also come on the fifth day, in Columbia alone, of protests over the death of George Floyd while in police custody. The protests in Columbia and Charleston over the weekend drew large crowds of people, not socially distanced and people not wearing masks. Protests have and continue to take place in other parts of the state as well.
Duwve said there are no known coronavirus cases related to this weekend’s protests, but that doesn’t mean people should put their guard down against COVID-19. In fact, she said, the activities people engage in at protests could help spread the disease.
“Anytime we have a group of people gathered, not practicing social distancing and not wearing masks, we can expect to see cases resulting from those encounters,” Duwve said.
Duwve did say the louder a person speaks and a person singing at a loud volume, behaviors that take place at protests, could lead to the spread of the virus, if people are infected.
“If you are in a local community and you can get your hands on some masks, and take them out and distribute to protesters, that is an amazing gesture of goodwill,” Duwve said. “People should be aware of the increased risk.”
Duwve did say the state’s coronavirus curve was flattening for a while before seeing this increase in cases.
“This could look like a blip on that curve,” Duwve said. “If we hunker down and do what we need to do, or we can continue to see an increase in the curve overall. I guess it’s up to us.”
“As we start to see more individuals test positive, we will see more case spread,” Duwve said. “That’s why at this point it’s really critical that we all just hunker down, maintain that social distancing, stay home if we’re able, wear a mask.”
Asked whether state leaders made the right decision to reopen the economy when it did — South Carolina was one of the earliest states to move to reopen parts of the economy — Duwve did not critique the timeline.
Duwve did say the governor had a deliberate approach when closing down the state and in reopening it. However, she added that, while businesses appear to be taking precautions to protect workers and customers, the responsibility for stopping the spread of the coronavirus falls on individuals, too.
“It’s also up to the individual,” she said. “We have to bear some responsibility to what’s going on in the communities and in our families.”
