Beaufort County is a ‘sustained hotspot’ for COVID-19, Trump administration warns
Beaufort County is a “sustained hotspot” for COVID-19, according to a new report from President Donald Trump’s administration.
The report, which was first published Friday and updated Sunday, provides an unprecedented look into how the federal government is monitoring local COVID-19 outbreaks.
Federal officials predict that Beaufort County’s trajectory of coronavirus cases will “likely increase” and warn that the area may be at a “higher risk for experiencing healthcare resource limitations.”
Almost all of South Carolina’s counties are also designated as sustained hotspots, with the exception of a few rural areas like Allendale and Bamberg counties.
The Trump administration is also reporting a rapid “acceleration” in new infections around Beaufort County, which mirrors trends in 18 other counties scattered around the Palmetto State.
The report offers several troubling details:
Beaufort County had one of the higher COVID-19 test positivity rates in South Carolina from Dec. 11 to Dec. 17, with the county’s seven-day average sitting at 15.1% to 20%. Several other areas reported similar figures, from Williamsburg County to Lancaster County. Calhoun and Pickens counties had the highest positivity rates, with 25.1% or more.
Beaufort and Jasper counties had 249 new cases reported per 100,000 people from Dec. 10 to Dec. 16, which falls within the report’s highest warning level, according to data released for the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Beaufort Core Based Statistical Area.
Both counties had a combined 1.3% week-over-week rise in test positivity from Dec. 8 to Dec. 14, but a 12% drop in the number of diagnostic tests performed. That decline, though, could be an underestimate due to delayed reporting, officials say.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention contributed to the report as part of an interagency team working under the White House Coronavirus Task Force. The report offers no recommendations on how to better mitigate the deadly pathogen’s spread.
‘A major concern’
Like the federal report, state data also show that Beaufort County has seen a surge in new COVID-19 cases this month.
The county announced a single-day record of 126 new infections Friday. The area’s seven-day average of additional cases is also back to early August levels. And COVID-19-related hospitalizations are climbing at Beaufort Memorial Hospital.
“It really feels like this could go one way or the other,” said CEO Russell Baxley on Monday, adding that the medical center is regularly treating almost 30 coronavirus-positive patients, which is a spike compared to the hospital’s numbers from earlier this fall. “We’re heading into Christmas, which is a major concern.”
Those trends mirror the rest of the state and the country, which is locked in a deadly third wave of cases from California to Tennessee.
S.C. officials are now pleading with residents to take public health guidelines more seriously during the holiday season, as Gov. Henry McMaster has repeatedly declined to issue more forceful directives like a statewide mask mandate. McMaster’s office on Tuesday announced he had tested positive for COVID-19.
And while coronavirus vaccines are being distributed around the state, the general public won’t have access to them until sometime in 2021.
Pandemic “fatigue,” increased travel and a disregard for recommendations like social distancing are contributing to the recent uptick, health experts say.
“Stay safe, continue doing what we know works,” said Dr. Brannon Traxler, DHEC’s interim director of public health, during a briefing with reporters last week.
Safety tips
Dr. Linda Bell, the state’s top epidemiologist, in a statement Thursday issued a stark warning: South Carolina should expect a “staggering” number of new cases if residents throw safety to the wind in coming days.
“I’ll be staying home this Christmas. ... There’s no greater gift than the health of our loved ones,” she wrote.
The CDC is urging families to limit events to members of the same household. And DHEC says people should stay home this week, connect with friends online, spend time outdoors and attend virtual religious celebrations.
If residents do travel, Bell and others are encouraging public masking and social distancing of at least six feet. They also say people should get a COVID-19 test before and after taking a trip.
“It’s worth it to change how we celebrate this year so we can all be together next year,” Traxler wrote in a statement Thursday.
This story was originally published December 22, 2020 at 12:21 PM.
