Will Beaufort Co. municipalities require masks due to Delta variant? Officials weigh in
The contentious face mask debates that defined the early days of Beaufort County’s coronavirus outbreak could make a return this month.
Gov. Henry McMaster issued an executive order in May that blocked local governments from using his COVID-19 state of emergency to support public mask mandates.
But his executive order was issued under his state of emergency, which expired in June to little fanfare.
That means the executive order is no longer in effect, Brian Symmes, the governor’s spokesman, confirmed to The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.
Technically, Symmes revealed, local governments can now attempt to issue new mask rules.
“Obviously, the governor strongly opposes any mask mandates,” Symmes said.
In the coming weeks, as the super-contagious Delta variant spreads across South Carolina, and COVID-19 cases spike in Beaufort County, will local leaders try to reimpose face-covering mandates?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has already recommended that both fully vaccinated and unvaccinated county residents wear masks in indoor public spaces to help combat Delta.
Here’s what we know so far.
Beaufort County
Beaufort County Council in April was the first local government to drop its mandatory mask ordinance as COVID-19 trends improved this spring. The rules had been in place since July 3, 2020.
Called Friday, Beaufort County Council Chair Joe Passiment, who voted in favor of the mask ordinance every time it came up for a vote, said he would support a new countywide emergency mask ordinance if the council brought the issue up again.
Passiment, however, said the council has not yet discussed the matter. If it does, the council would have to call an emergency meeting, he said.
Council members probably would not discuss that until at least Wednesday due to the ongoing S.C. Association of Counties conference on Hilton Head Island, he said.
Hilton Head
John McCann, Hilton Head’s mayor, in a Friday phone call said there are no plans to issue a new mask mandate on the island. The town’s original face-covering requirements expired when McMaster signed his executive order in May.
The Town Council, as of Friday, was not planning to discuss the issue at its next meeting in August, McCann added.
Hilton Head is faring better with COVID-19 than other parts of Beaufort County and South Carolina, he said.
“Right now, the data doesn’t indicate we need it,” McCann said.
However, the council may consider issuing a new mandate in the future, he said, if pandemic data indicate that it’s the right thing to do.
McCann said he would also rely on mask recommendations from Jeremy Clark, CEO of Hilton Head Regional Healthcare.
Clark in a Friday statement wrote: “We continue to closely monitor the CDC’s COVID-19 guidance and adjust measures in place at our hospitals to ensure the safety of our patients and staff. I am supportive of local individuals and officials following the same protocol.”
Russell Baxley, CEO of Beaufort Memorial Hospital, in a statement added that the county’s largest medical center would support “any moves, such as universal masking in the community, that would help limit the spread of the delta variant and mitigate the current surge.”
“We currently enforce universal masking in the hospital as policy,” Baxley wrote.
The Beaufort hospital published new visitor restrictions on Thursday, citing the area’s latest coronavirus spike.
Bluffton
Called Friday, Bluffton Mayor Lisa Sulka said she and other Bluffton officials have not spoken about whether to issue a new mask ordinance.
When Bluffton approved its last mask mandate, the town was in “dire straits,” she said. If she was forced to vote on a new ordinance today, she probably would vote no, she said.
She said she plans to talk to her colleagues to “get the feel of council.”
“If it was something we felt required immediate action, I would ask council to meet,” she said. “I’m looking at (the COVID-19 numbers). I’m watching it every day. It has not caused the alarm for another council member to ask me about it.”
Sulka, whose father died in October due to COVID-19, said she is vaccinated and believes in the vaccine.
“I believe my dad would still be alive with the vaccine,” she said. “I have a personal experience that’s just sad. I believe in the vaccine. I wish we were able to have a way to encourage everyone. I’m not going to demand people to do it. They need to see the personal stories behind it from our residents on why they wish they would’ve gotten vaccinated.”
Beaufort
The city of Beaufort announced Thursday that it will require masks inside city-run buildings, including City Hall, beginning Monday.
For now, the city is asking residents and employees to voluntarily mask up inside other buildings that are open to the public. But no plans are in the works to make masks mandatory, said Mayor Stephen Murray, who was not aware that McMaster’s executive order had expired, giving communities the option to act.
The challenge, Murray said, is ensuring that Beaufort Memorial Hospital is not overrun with coronavirus patients, while also keeping the economy open.
“That’s the balance we’re trying to walk,” Murray said.
Community leaders held a conference call to discuss the COVID-19 situation Friday morning, and there’s real concern about the latest coronavirus numbers, he said.
Baxley in a statement confirmed that, as of Friday, Beaufort Memorial Hospital was treating 21 COVID-19 patients. Six of those people were in the intensive care unit. Four were on ventilators. (There were only eight coronavirus patients admitted to the medical center on July 19. Two of those people were in the ICU. One person was on a ventilator.)
None of the hospital’s COVID-19 patients Friday had been vaccinated, Murray said, adding that he could not overstate how important it is for people 12 or older to be inoculated. Vaccines are the only offensive weapon against COVID-19, he said.
“Everything else is defensive positions,” Murray said. “I want us playing offense to keep this thing tamped down.”
Port Royal
Port Royal Mayor Joe DeVito, who also was unaware that the governor’s executive order was no longer in effect, said the town is evaluating the situation, but has made no decisions about masks or other COVID-19-related rules.
Town officials would prefer that residents entering Town Hall wear masks, he said.
Capacity rules on how many members of the public are allowed to attend council meetings in person will also be revisited, he said. The town started to allow residents to attend those in-person meetings again in July.
“Right now, it’s strictly a discussion point,” DeVito said of COVID-19 rules, as town officials stay in contact with other municipalities, local agencies and Beaufort Memorial Hospital about the evolving situation, he said.
The first meeting that council members could act at is Aug. 11, unless a special meeting is called, DeVito said.
“Obviously, it’s something we have to keep our eyes on and react to and do what needs to be done to protect everybody,” DeVito said.
What’s next?
Whether Beaufort County governments will revisit mask mandates remains to be seen.
While health experts have praised masks, and point to data showing their effectiveness at slowing COVID-19’s spread, some local residents have fiercely opposed face-covering rules.
A small but vocal group of mask mandate opponents commandeered public comment and spammed livestreams of local government meetings last fall.
One thing is clear: COVID-19’s spread is rapidly accelerating in South Carolina, including in Beaufort County. Experts say the Delta variant, which is able to sidestep part of the body’s vaccine-induced immune response, is driving the latest surge, particularly among unvaccinated people.
The county’s seven-day average of new cases on Thursday spiked to 45 infections per day, a level last seen in mid-February, when vaccines were scarce and tensions were high among residents clamoring for a shot.
The county’s incidence rate has skyrocketed in recent days. And the average positivity rate on Thursday was 16.5%.
The area’s COVID-19 trends are starting to mirror last winter’s. And last summer’s.
The CDC on Tuesday recommended that fully vaccinated residents, and unvaccinated people, all wear masks indoors in counties with “high” or “substantial” levels of coronavirus transmission. Beaufort County, as of Friday, had a high amount of COVID-19 spread, according to the CDC.
The vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are still effective against Delta, but new data show that vaccinated people, in rare “breakthrough infections,” may carry viral loads similar to those in unvaccinated residents, if they contract the variant, the CDC’s director has said.
In other words, vaccinated people could potentially spread Delta to those who are still unvaccinated, the director previously said.
“We know that more cases can, and will, lead to more hospitalizations and deaths,” added Dr. Linda Bell, South Carolina’s top epidemiologist, during a Wednesday briefing with reporters. “We know that we have the tools to prevent this.”
Note: Data in this story are current as of Friday morning.
This story was originally published August 1, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
