‘I have never been more concerned,’ SC’s state epidemiologist says as COVID rages on

One of South Carolina’s top health officials sounded the alarm Wednesday about the extreme increase of COVID-19 cases over the last month.

Dr. Linda Bell, a state epidemiologist, told reporters the state is experiencing its second-highest rate of daily new coronavirus cases and that trend is “sharply” curving upward.

“As your state epidemiologist, and as someone who has studied disease control and prevention for my entire career, I have never been more concerned about the health of our state than I am today,” Bell said.

Bell said the number of patients hospitalized due to COVID-19 across the state have tripled in just three weeks. As of Monday, 78.6% of hospital beds across the state were occupied, and 13% of all patients were diagnosed with COVID-19, according to data collected by the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also has reported that South Carolina is experiencing a high rate of virus transmission, Bell said.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is reaching heights that South Carolina has only experienced once before, in January, our apex,” Bell said.

Bell’s comments were made in a call with reporters as South Carolina crosses a morbid threshold: 10,000 residents killed by COVID-19.

Bell called the statistic “the most sobering and tragic of all.”

“The majority of these deaths could have been prevented if all the infection prevention tools at our disposal had been consistently adopted,” Bell said.

Back in June, Bell said, South Carolina was reporting days with dozens, not hundreds of cases.

But, today, the state is consistently reporting seeing more than 1,000 cases each day. On Wednesday, the state health department reported 1,680 new confirmed cases.

“Some in our nation and our state are making choices now that are causing us to lose a battle against an infectious disease for which we have the weapons to prevent,” Bell said.

Bell urged residents to get vaccinated to fight against the chances of developing serious illness due to COVID-19. Because so few are getting the vaccine, Bell said more than 45,000 doses of the vaccine sent to South Carolina went unused and had expired.

“We know that the COVID vaccines are plentiful,” Bell said. “They’re easily accessible everywhere in the state, and any one 12 years of age and older should get vaccinated immediately in order to get full protection as quickly as possible.”

Bell warned that the longer COVID-19 rages across the state and across the country, the higher the chance of new variants of the virus developing that are not covered by the vaccin.e

“At this time, we are in a public health crisis, and we have to stop transmission now,” Bell said.

“We are headed in the wrong direction right now, and we’re headed there quickly.”

This story was originally published August 11, 2021 at 3:27 PM with the headline "‘I have never been more concerned,’ SC’s state epidemiologist says as COVID rages on."

Emily Bohatch

The State

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Emily Bohatch helps cover South Carolina’s government for The State. She also updates The State’s databases. Her accomplishments include winning multiple awards for her coverage of state government and of South Carolina’s prison system. She has a degree in Journalism from Ohio University’s E. W. Scripps School of Journalism. Support my work with a digital subscription