COVID-19 hospitalizations remain steady in Beaufort County as SC reports surge
The number of COVID-19 patients at Beaufort County’s hospitals is hovering in the same range as the previous week while health officials continue to report a record-breaking total statewide.
Beaufort Memorial Hospital as of Thursday was treating 25 COVID-19 patients. Five of those people were in the intensive care unit. The hospital had 24 coronavirus patients a week prior.
Hilton Head and Coastal Carolina hospitals also had 25 COVID-19 patients as of Friday morning, according to Daisy Burroughs, a spokesperson for Tenet Healthcare, which owns the two medical centers. The hospitals were treating 28 patients with the coronavirus on Jan. 8.
While those numbers are an uptick in comparison to last fall, the health care facilities are still far from activating any emergency surge plans, even though most beds are filled in Beaufort and Jasper counties, according to state data.
The three hospitals haven’t requested formal assistance from the S.C. Emergency Management Division in the past week, spokespeople confirmed.
“It’s still lower than what we saw back in mid-July,” said Jeremy Clark, CEO of Hilton Head Regional Healthcare, during a Zoom meeting Wednesday with the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce. “Overall I think we’re managing.”
That’s not the case elsewhere in the state.
Prisma Health Laurens County Hospital recently asked EMD and the S.C. National Guard to help staff a new 15-bed step-down unit specifically for COVID-19 patients, as cases continue to surge around the Upstate.
The new unit is set to open Monday.
Derrec Becker, an EMD spokesman, said the agency has received informal assistance requests from hospitals throughout the pandemic.
Many have needed help acquiring personal protective equipment like gloves or face masks.
No tent facilities, though, or other surge sites have been opened outdoors during the Palmetto State’s latest wave of infections, Becker said.
“Hopefully we won’t get to that point,” he said.
Becker, though, is worried about the next few weeks. Given the trajectory of cases after the holidays, more hospitalizations are likely soon, which could push health centers to take more drastic measures, even as vaccines are slowly distributed around South Carolina.
Gov. Henry McMaster on Friday made an attempt to free up some bed space, citing the surge and demand for vaccinations. The governor asked hospitals to voluntarily reduce the number of elective surgeries and “non-essential procedures.” He didn’t require they do so.
It remains to be seen how Lowcountry hospitals will fare later this month and in February.
Beaufort County, as an example, has logged a record-breaking number of new COVID-19 cases several times in the last two months.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading expert on infectious diseases, has warned that mid-January will provide a clearer indication as to how bad things will get after the holidays.
The state, meanwhile, already logged more than 2,400 COVID-19 hospitalizations earlier this week — a record-breaking number.
Just over 25% of 9,548 total patients statewide were COVID-19-positive as of Friday, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
“We must all act now or continue to face unprecedented numbers of cases that are overwhelming our hospitals and healthcare systems, as well as taking the lives of those we love,” wrote Dr. Brannon Traxler, DHEC’s interim director of public health, in a statement Thursday. “To do that, every one of us must recommit to the fight. We are all on the frontlines. If we don’t act now, we could face many dark months ahead.”
