‘The power’s in our hands’: How Beaufort Co. can avoid a Labor Day coronavirus spike
It’s pretty simple, local health experts argue: Beaufort County has made progress recently in its fight against the coronavirus.
But to avoid throwing that all away, residents have to follow COVID-19 safety precautions over the Labor Day weekend.
“The power’s in our hands,” said Dr. Faith Polkey, chief clinical officer at Beaufort Jasper Hampton Comprehensive Health Services. “People still need to be vigilant.”
The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control has been warning residents for weeks that Labor Day could lead to another surge of infections, much like the Fourth of July.
The deadly pathogen isn’t gone, Polkey stressed.
While daily case counts have dropped in Beaufort County, a high percentage of the area’s COVID-19 tests are positive week-to-week, an indicator of the virus’ continued transmission.
Dr. Stephen Larson, owner of Sea Pines Circle Immediate Care on Hilton Head Island, said he noticed a significant amount of household disease spread this summer.
Given the upcoming holiday, that’s a cause for concern, he said.
“A backyard barbecue could be a ‘superspreader’ event,” he said.
Polkey and Larson offered the following COVID-19 safety tips for residents and visitors this weekend:
If you’re going to see older parents or relatives, try to stay outdoors and make the visit brief, Polkey said. Avoid going indoors.
Wear a mask if you can’t stay six feet apart from others while hosting a cookout. Try to meet only with close family or people you see at home day-to-day.
If you’re a service worker, wash your hands frequently. Polkey said that employees at restaurants and various front-line jobs were hit hard by the coronavirus after Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. “When tourists come to town, they may be bringing COVID with them,” she said.
Pay attention to vulnerable people around you who are at risk of developing serious COVID-19 health complications, including those with underlying conditions such as diabetes or heart disease.
Larson said that if the weekend goes poorly, cases could start to rise again within seven days.
Ten to 14 days later, hospitalizations might tick up.
He’s particularly worried about neighborhood transmission, where residents are more likely to relax and forget about public health recommendations.
Dr. Linda Bell, DHEC’s top epidemiologist, seems to agree.
“People go out and celebrate. As we’ve seen following the last two holidays over the summer season, beginning with Memorial Day, again after the Fourth of July, that when we have widespread disease transmission, as we do in the majority of our counties, when people congregate and they don’t observe the protective measures that we’ve recommended, then I remain concerned that we’ll see rebound,” Bell said late last month.
“We don’t have to completely close down and completely change our lifestyle, but there are ways we can do these things much, much more safely than we have for the previous holidays,” she said.
As of Thursday, Beaufort County’s seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases was roughly 27.8. That figure is far below the averages reported in late July, when at one point about 98 cases were being confirmed in the county every 24 hours.
DHEC on Monday also classified the county as having “medium” recent disease activity.
“Keep in mind we’ve made good progress so far,” said Dr. Kathleen Cartmell, a public health professor at Clemson University. “We don’t want to lose that.”
