McMaster asks DHEC to draft new nursing home plan, renews COVID-19 emergency order
Gov. Henry McMaster said Friday he has asked the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control to draft a plan that will allow immediate families to safely visit their loved ones who live in assisted living facilities, while at the same time extending his emergency order as the number of positive COVID-19 cases continues to surge in the state.
It’s at least the eighth time the governor has extended the order, which gives him the authority to continue issuing executive orders to help curb the outbreak.
McMaster also said Friday that he will continue the “highly important” process of reopening the state — he has reversed some of his earlier mandates closing restaurants and retail stores. But he will not lift restrictions on night clubs, concert venues, theaters, auditoriums, performing arts centers and spectator sports until data shows that virus activity is going down.
McMaster restricted visitation to nursing homes in April in an aggressive effort to keep its vulnerable population safe.
But the state’s nursing homes and assisted living facilities have reported some of the biggest outbreaks among its residents since the state first logged positive cases in March. In May, data released by the state’s health department showed nursing home residents made up over a third of the state’s total coronavirus-related deaths, despite only accounting for nearly 12% of positive cases.
“Not having people going into the nursing homes of course has reduced the spread, we believe. But it has also increased the feeling of isolation, the mental, emotional strain and other problems,” McMaster said. “The isolation does that, the domestic violence, the alcoholism, I haven’t seen this suicide rates lately. But all of this kind of isolation does cause those sorts of unintended consequences. But we are going to develop a plan to allow loved ones to see their loved ones in these nursing homes, but again, we’ve got to be very, very careful.”
Acting DHEC director Marshall Taylor, speaking at a press conference, said the agency would take a phased approach to reopening the nursing homes.
After previously only permitting visitors to see their family members through a glass panel, such as a door, DHEC will issue guidance allowing outdoor visits next week, Taylor said. When case counts and other metrics start to show a decline in virus activity, in-facility visits will be restored, Taylor said.
“We recognize the pain that not being able to see your relatives in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities causes,” Taylor said. “At DHEC, I hear on a daily basis about people who haven’t seen their parents in months. So we understand that.”
The new extension of McMaster’s emergency order comes on the heels of public health officials’ concerns that not enough people are taking the virus seriously.
On Friday, health officials reported another 1,273 new positive COVID-19 cases, bringing the state’s total past 30,263.
The virus has resulted in 694 deaths.
This week, the state’s top epidemiologist told reporters a statewide mask requirement would help limit the spread.
The governor has urged South Carolinians to wear them, even sporting one himself, but he repeated Friday that he will not issue a statewide mandate requiring people to do so, insisting such an order would be “ineffective,” “impractical,” and “unenforceable.”
“For me to tell you that we are going to require people to wear a mask and then not be able to enforce, it gives a false sense of security to those who believe that everybody is following the rules,” McMaster said.
The city of Columbia’s mask requirement took effect on Friday morning, and cities of Charleston, Greenville and Clemson also have set their own mask requirements. Richland County also is looking at whether to require mask wearing throughout the whole county.
“As we continue to witness the rise in cases, if we work at strengthening mask requirements one municipality at a time, I do feel like we won’t get to where we need to be quickly enough,” Dr. Linda Bell said on a conference call Tuesday. “On a statewide basis, it would certainly be much more effective if we could do something as soon as possible ... to get the adoption widespread across the state.”
John Monk contributed to this report.
This story was originally published June 26, 2020 at 4:42 PM.
