In the parking lot of the Regional Medical Center in Orangeburg, South Carolina, construction workers have been working around the clock to erect a series of white and blue inflatable medical tents as doctors rush to stem the wave of coronavirus patients .
Serving a population twice the size of Rhode Island, the rural hospital is nearly full, forcing officials to ask the National Guard to erect the state’s first field hospital, which consists of four tents to provide overflow capacity for at least a dozen virus patients at once. hour.
While the alternative care site will not be usable for up to three weeks, the president and CEO of the Regional Medical Center, Charles Williams, said the precautionary measure is necessary as the state continues to see an increase in COVID cases- 19 that could overwhelm the public health system.
“At some point, we must do something, because there are only so many beds, so many staff, we must do something,” Williams said at a news conference Monday, noting that there were only eight beds available at the hospital. “We must do everything possible to actively plan for the care of our patients.”
The dire situation in Orangeburg is a microcosm for the state, which has continued to break COVID-19 records. As one of the first states to loosen coronavirus restrictions, South Carolina is now struggling to tackle a COVID-19 crisis.
Meanwhile, Governor Henry McMaster announced this week that a large number of businesses could reopen. Festivals, concerts, cinemas, stadiums, gyms, concert halls, performing arts centers, parks, and racetracks can reopen to 50 percent of capacity.
“Hollywood is playing and theaters will be ready to open,” McMaster said Wednesday. “They will have to follow these rules. Go see your favorite movie, have a little distance, you will have to wear a mask. “
At least 1,551 people have died and 85,423 more have been infected with the coronavirus in South Carolina, and one in five tests tested positive. On Wednesday, the state saw a roughly 20 percent increase in the number of new cases overnight, with 1,666 cases. The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control announced Wednesday that 79 percent of ICU beds were occupied, of which 404 were used by patients with COVID-19.
Dr. Helmut Albrecht, chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of South Carolina at Columbia and Prisma Health, told The Daily Beast that the increase in coronavirus cases “was inevitable” because the reopening of the state happened too soon.
“I understand that we need to open up, but I’m not sure that he’s seeing any logic to open up with these numbers,” Albrecht said. “It is too high. We have not yet peaked in hospitals and we have not yet peaked in mortality. There was always going to be a delay, and everyone in the medical community felt this impending situation. We were stretched in March and now we are dealing with several of those numbers now. I’m very worried.”
South Carolina’s coronavirus case count has been steadily increasing since June, when hospitals were treating some 450 virus patients. in a New York Times According to the study of the number of daily infections between June 28 and July 5, Arizona and Florida were the two most affected areas in the world, followed by South Carolina, Bahrain and Louisiana.
The number has tripled in the past two months, overwhelming emergency departments and their staff who apparently can’t keep up with a wave of new cases emerging daily as government officials put a band-aid on the problem. Last week, the South Carolina National Guard announced that it would provide staff support to five hospitals along the Grand Strand, sending at least 40 doctors to “expand their ability to care for patients in need.”
According to a doctor from the Charleston emergency room, the increase in cases also means that hospital staff is a problem, as more employees have become ill with the virus. Lack of personnel, he said, has forced hospitals to send virus patients to other facilities, sometimes hours away.
“Charleston is a big city, so COVID-19 residents don’t have to go far for treatment when we can’t handle them,” said the doctor. “But this increase in cases is only going to get worse, and in more rural cities, like Orangeburg, residents may have nowhere else to go. We are on the verge of a crisis if we do not reduce our numbers or if we get more space in the hospital immediately ”.
Albrecht also emphasized the catastrophic effects of understaffing, stating that while Columbia, the state capital, has “arenas we can open” if hospitals run out of space, “if we don’t have the doctors and nurses, it doesn’t matter. . ”
“We are seeing more staff members with COVID-19 than ever before, and we have more patients to deal with,” he said. “It is a bad scenario. Right now we are handling the virus, and we are handling everything it throws at us and we would very much appreciate not being more overwhelmed.
“But once you have to look at your resource allocation and decide who gets what, mortality increases dramatically. We are all certainly feeling the pressure right now. “
Some doctors insist that the increase in South Carolina was inevitable, given state officials’ response to the virus. In addition to closing schools in the first month of the pandemic, there was little effort across the state to stem the spread. As late as March, the Republican-led state government was actively discouraging local public health efforts.
Faced with pressure from local Democratic lawmakers, McMaster, a Republican, has allowed cities to implement public health measures like closing some businesses.
But many southern Carolinians were instantly outraged by even the smallest restrictions. The first major public protest against social distancing measures was in Columbia on April 24. A few hundred people, many of them from out of town, marched or demonstrated from their cars.
On April 24, McMaster was one of the first governors to begin loosening coronavirus restrictions, issuing an executive order that allowed most retail and department stores to reopen with social distancing. And as McMaster has continued to expand the number of businesses available to reopen, so has the COVID-19 case rate.
Wednesday’s announcement that large venues such as concert halls and arenas could be reopened, albeit with an occupancy of 50 percent or 250 people, will mean large group activities will resume. It will inevitably result in “an additional increase” that will drain an already limited health reserve, Albrecht said.
Noting that McMaster also signed an executive order on Wednesday requiring facial masks for all restaurant employees and customers, Albrecht said the masks are just one measure that will reduce the virus.
“We are too high in our numbers for testing and tracing to have a real impact,” he said. “All other measures must work together, and while face covers can mitigate spread, the numbers are too high. If we don’t lower our numbers, another sharp increase could overwhelm our healthcare system. ”
Albrecht added that while some large cities in Palmetto state have already taken steps to reduce the spread, there is still a “knowledge gap” between residents and the medical community.
Myrtle Beach, a popular tourist destination with a large elderly community, appears to be one of the most troubled areas in the state. A 71-year-old Virginia resident died from the virus just four weeks after his vacation there.
An internal state report obtained by ABC News foreshadowed that the South Carolina COVID-19 outbreak has no end in sight. The July 4 report, which highlighted hotspots, particularly in coastal counties, said that in Horry County, where Myrtle Beach is located, “cases continue to rise sharply” with “widespread travel to the area. that contribute to cases. ” In Charleston, “there are no signs of a slowdown in cases,” according to the report.
For the Charleston emergency room doctor, the continual flocks of tourists and residents of Myrtle Beach and other critical points demonstrate that “people still don’t take it seriously.” Noting that the peak for the state may have passed, he emphasized that “some residents need a wake up call, this is a pandemic that will not go away.”
While the state government has surrendered to the virus, cities continue to fight. Columbia, Charleston, Myrtle Beach, and more than two dozen other municipalities have, since late June, passed ordinances requiring people to wear masks while in public.
But to date, South Carolina does not have a mask mandate despite recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. McMaster’s office did not respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment on the increase in COVID-19 in South Carolina, but the governor has previously criticized some preventive measures, calling the mask mandates “impractical” and “ineffective. ” last month.
“People talk about perfect storms and I don’t like that idea, you can’t avoid a perfect storm,” said Albrecht. “But this is avoidable. We can improve this situation by simply buckling up. Other places have shown that opening early without data support is really dangerous. We have to do that more intelligently. ”
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