‘Please, consider staying home for New Year’s Eve,’ SC health officials say as cases soar
After reporting nearly 6,000 new COVID-19 cases in one day, South Carolina health officials urged residents to stay home on New Year’s Eve.
Department of Health and Environmental Control Director of Public Health Dr. Brannon Traxler painted a grim picture of what the pandemic could look like in South Carolina in early 2022.
Traxler warned that DHEC is preparing for the likelihood that more than 6,000 COVID-19 cases will be recorded Friday and even more in the upcoming days and weeks.
“This is flat out alarming for our state,” Traxler told reporters Thursday.
Traxler urged South Carolinians to “strongly consider the dire times we are in” and avoid large crowds and meetings to celebrate New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. She suggested celebrating digitally or doing a socially distanced countdown.
“We know that this is not ideal, but neither are the times we’re all living in,” Traxler said.
Traxler warned that if COVID-19 continues spreading like it has recently, it could mean that more people suffer with severe COVID-19, get hospitalized and possibly die.
Just over the last week, the number of those hospitalized with COVID-19 doubled, Traxler said. Wednesday, hospitals across the state warned they are filling more beds with COVID-19 patients as omicron continues to spread. Prisma Health, one of the state’s largest hospital systems, said it would cut back services to deal with a crush of COVID-19 patients.
“We are at a crucial moment in the pandemic. We do not want to start 2022, our third year of the pandemic, with record hospitalizations and deaths,” Traxler said, adding that was the direction South Carolina is currently heading.
Traxler also urged South Carolinians to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine staves off severe illness due to COVID-19, she said. Those who are vaccinated should get a booster shot, Traxler advised.
Locations to get vaccinated can be found on DHEC’s website at vaxlocator.dhec.sc.gov.
South Carolina saw fewer that 1,000 new coronavirus cases each day in November. However, thus far in December, 21 days have recorded more than 1,000 cases, according to DHEC data.
DHEC reported 5,911 new cases Wednesday, the highest number of reported cases in one day since Sept. 9 and 13.
State health officials attribute the skyrocketing COVID-19 spread to holiday travel, something they predicted would happen months ago.
This story was originally published December 30, 2021 at 2:33 PM with the headline "‘Please, consider staying home for New Year’s Eve,’ SC health officials say as cases soar."
