Hilton Head mayor declares state of emergency as COVID-19 cases surge. What that means
Hilton Head Island’s mayor has declared a state of emergency due to the Lowcountry’s ongoing surge of COVID-19 cases, according to assistant town manager Angie Stone.
Mayor John McCann signed the emergency declaration just before 10:30 a.m. Monday, Stone said.
The state of emergency does not establish new town-wide requirements for the use of face coverings in businesses. And McCann in an interview said he does not expect the island’s Town Council to issue a new public mask mandate in the coming days.
Instead, McCann said the town plans to strongly recommend that residents wear face coverings in indoor public spaces, regardless of vaccination status.
The mayor said he believes a recommendation will be more effective than a mask mandate. It’s an issue of “personal responsibility,” McCann said.
The state of emergency, he said, “gives us the ability to do more if we have to do more” as town officials continue to evaluate local COVID-19 trends.
The declaration allows Town Manager Marc Orlando to require residents and staff to wear face masks in Town Hall and other town buildings like the Fire Rescue headquarters, Stone said in an interview.
Stone also said the town is making other adjustments to address the region’s recent wave of coronavirus infections:
Town Council members, if they choose, can virtually attend council meetings.
The town will resume its livestreams of Town Council meetings on Facebook. The council’s next regular meeting is Tuesday at 4 p.m.
The town has contracted with Kelly Bouthillet, a local nurse practitioner, to advise Stone on COVID-19 issues.
The town wants to partner with DHEC to host vaccine clinics at local events like the Hilton Head Wine and Food Festival or Hilton Head Island Shrimp Festival, Stone said. The clinics would improve local vaccine access later this fall, she said.
The island’s Town Council will discuss the new state of emergency declaration during its Tuesday meeting, Stone said. The council, she said, can consider whether it wants to enact any ordinances under the state of emergency.
The town’s previous COVID-19 mask ordinance, which ended in May, was partially based on McCann’s original coronavirus state of emergency, which expired July 1.
Mask mandates
Gov. Henry McMaster issued an executive order in May that blocked local governments from using South Carolina’s statewide 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 governor’s executive order is no longer in effect, Brian Symmes, McMaster’s spokesman, previously confirmed to The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.
Technically, Symmes revealed, local governments like Hilton Head’s can now attempt to issue new mask rules.
‘We must take action now’
The town’s latest state of emergency, which went into effect Monday, comes amid a record-breaking spike in COVID-19 cases, with the super-contagious delta variant sweeping the state.
The variant, which was discovered in India late last year, has exploited South Carolina’s low vaccination rate in recent weeks.
Beaufort County has reported more than 100 new COVID-19 cases every day since Friday. The county’s seven-day average of newly confirmed cases, as of Monday, was 135 infections per day. (That’s almost a record high.)
A surge of unvaccinated coronavirus patients has been filling Beaufort Memorial Hospital. Dr. Linda Bell, the state’s top epidemiologist, has warned that “we must take action now” to combat the delta variant. And eight COVID-19 deaths have been recorded in Beaufort County since July 31, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. (DHEC reported only one coronavirus death in the county in June.)
From July 1 to Aug. 14, meanwhile, about 430 coronavirus cases were reported in Hilton Head’s two ZIP codes, 29926 and 29928, according to DHEC.
In comparison, between May 1 and June 30, 67 infections were identified in the island’s two ZIP codes, state data show.
“Until more people become vaccinated to protect themselves and others, we will probably be wearing masks for a little while longer,” McCann wrote in a Monday statement. “It is my hope that those in our community who are not vaccinated will consider getting a vaccine and help our community move past this pandemic.”
This story was originally published August 16, 2021 at 11:53 AM.
