SC doctors appeal for help in stemming sharp rise in coronavirus cases

Doctors in Greenville hospitals on Tuesday appealed to residents to help halt a marked increase in the number of COVID-19 cases that have occurred since Halloween.

Dr. Wendell James of Prisma Health said it is especially important to wear masks, social distance and practice hand washing during the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year holidays.

He said if people would take those precautions, COVID-19 infections would remain stable until vaccines become available.

“There is light at the end of the tunnel,” he said in a news conference.

James declined to give a specific number of COVID-19 hospitalizations at Prisma Health facilities but did say that its hospitals in the Upstate and Midlands are two-thirds the way to capacity. Statewide, 844 patients were hospitalized with coronavirus-related symptoms as of Monday.

Shown on a chart, the increase in coronavirus infections is rising straight up, James said.

Greenville County has the highest incidence of the virus in the state, with 22,537 confirmed infections and 396 deaths since the pandemic began. In the past two weeks, 3,064 cases have been recorded in Greenville County, according to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.

Richland County is second, followed by Charleston County.

James offered specific recommendations for family Thanksgiving gatherings: wear masks inside homes, sit apart while eating, and have one person serve food rather than spreading the food on a buffet table.

“Our responsibility is not to make each other ill,” he said.

Dr. Marcus Blackstone of Bon Secours St. Francis Health System gave a tutorial on mask wearing, demonstrating how to unfold a disposable mask and place it. He said disposable masks should be thrown away in a trash receptacle when dirty or frayed. He noted he has seen masks thrown down or left in shopping carts, requiring someone else to handle a soiled or possibly contagious mask.

Cloth masks should be washed weekly, Blackstone said.

Blackstone said Bon Secours was pushing its hospital bed capacity, due not only to COVID-19 but also to flu patients and chronically ill people who are sicker because they’re put off going to the hospital.

“This surge is preventable,” he said.