As COVID-19 cases soar, SC Gov. McMaster says ‘the answer is individual responsibility’
Despite rising COVID-19 infection numbers and the state epidemiologist saying she’s more concerned than ever before about the rate the virus is spreading, Gov. Henry McMaster says he has no plans to close businesses again or force South Carolinians to wear masks.
Instead, on Wednesday, as the state announced 528 new infections — consistent with recently high daily case counts — the governor said it’s up to individual’s to adjust their behavior to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
“At this point, the answer is individual responsibility, not mandates from the government,” the Columbia Republican said.
McMaster spoke about the ongoing COVID-19 crisis as the total case count reached 15,759 South Carolinians on Wednesday. The number of new cases each day in the state has regularly set record highs during the past week.
The governor has lifted restrictions initially put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus. People again can eat at restaurants, shop at retail stores, and go to public beaches and boat docks. McMaster also allowed attractions to welcome guests in time for the Memorial Day weekend.
On Wednesday, he again urged people to wear masks and socially distance from each other.
Twelve states, such as Illinois, New York and Maryland, require people to wear masks in public. In eight states such as North Carolina, Florida and California there are requirements to wear masks in some areas.
However, it’s a move McMaster doesn’t plan to take.
“We do not have enough police officers to go around the state and enforce mandates. It is up to the people to determine what kind of precautions need to be followed,” McMaster said.
The governor said he is still weighing when to reopen entertainment venues, such as theaters and concert venues, but the higher case counts don’t necessarily mean he will push back the date those businesses will be allowed to reopen.
“We always take those things into consideration,” McMaster said. “We want to open things up as soon as we can, as carefully as we can. But what it does do is emphasize the need for people to practice social distancing, and for being careful. That’s the answer. It’s not closing businesses. I’ve got no intention of closing anymore businesses, no intention.”
McMaster argued keeping the economy closed would not necessarily stop the spread of the virus, saying high case numbers in places such as Illinois and New York have not disappeared despite those states having had more stringent lock downs in place when the virus was spreading rapidly.
“We have to let people work,”McMaster said. “People have to be able to go and work for a living to support their families, support their children, to pay the bills, to keep the lights on, to save for college and all those thousands of things. You simply cannot stop that indefinitely. We slowed it down in South Carolina enough to arm ourselves with the knowledge of what we need to do to be safe.”
State Epidemiologist Linda Bell said she is more concerned than ever with the spread of the virus.
“We’re all eager to return to our normal lives or what our new normal will be, but it will take us that much longer to get there if we don’t stop the virus together,” Bell said.
This story was originally published June 10, 2020 at 5:14 PM with the headline "As COVID-19 cases soar, SC Gov. McMaster says ‘the answer is individual responsibility’."
