| Greenville News
With the cases of COVID-19 reaching a new daily high on Thursday in South Carolina, medical experts who spoke at a news conference in Greenville urged residents in the northern “hot spot” to take the disease seriously using masks and following recommendations for social distance.
Dr. Marcus Blackstone, clinical director of the Bon Secours St. Francis Health System, said that COVID-19 is widespread in Greenville County.
Blackstone also said that the respiratory disease is now spreading to younger populations. A St. Francis spokesman said Blackstone was specifically referring to high school and college students.
Although experts warned that the elderly are at the greatest risk of dying from COVID-19, the disease also poses a serious threat to young people, said Dr. C. Wendell James III, clinical director at Prisma Health – Upstate.
“It can have effects on the kidneys, liver, lungs, heart – and we don’t know how permanent it will be,” said James.
James said hospitals in the region currently have sufficient capacity to care for patients with COVID-19 and those with other conditions. But he also noted that the number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 has recently increased.
“What we didn’t expect was the speed of the increase we’ve seen in the past few days,” said James.
As of Wednesday, Prisma Health had 104 patients hospitalized across the system with COVID-19, slightly above the previous highest number of 90 on April 3. Prisma Health is South Carolina’s largest healthcare system with hospitals and medical facilities in the countryside and Midlands.
If the current trend continues, James warned, the coronavirus pandemic could become “exceptionally difficult to control”.
Unless more residents start practicing social detachment and wearing masks, he said, “We could literally overwhelm our ability to care for patients.”
Blackstone echoed James’ comments.
“The last thing we want is to start restricting elective procedures again,” said Blackstone.
Coronavirus updates in SC: DHEC Announces New Daily Case Record
Greenville County has more COVID-19 cases than some entire states
Dr. Brannon Traxler, a preventive physician with the state Department of Health and Environmental Control, said 687 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in South Carolina on Thursday, the highest total since the pandemic hit the state in March . There were also another 13 deaths.
The total number of COVID-19 cases in South Carolina reached 16,641, with 588 deaths.
Traxler said another 125 cases of COVID-19 and two deaths were recorded in Greenville County on Thursday. On Wednesday, the county saw 145 new cases, the highest total in any day for any county in South Carolina since the pandemic began.
Greenville County, which has the highest grand total of COVID-19 cases in the state, has seen 1,125 new cases in the past two weeks. This 14-day count represents 45% of the county’s grand total of 2,492 cases since March.
Earlier this week, DHEC officials said the percentage of positive COVID-19 tests recently tripled in Greenville County. The percentage went from 2.9% on May 27 to 9.4% on June 3.
This is an indication that the continued increase in Greenville County in new cases of COVID-19 is not just due to an increase in testing.
“To put these numbers in perspective, Greenville County currently has a higher case count and a higher case rate by population size than the entire state of Vermont, West Virginia, Wyoming or Montana,” said Traxler in Thursday.
Traxler said that Latino residents account for about a third of recent cases in Greenville County. She said the highest concentration of cases was seen in the midwestern part of the county.
Councilman Ennis Fant said that three zip codes in his district in western Greenville County had seen 421 news cases of COVID-19 in the past two weeks.
“The numbers we have today are the biggest we saw, even before the stoppage,” said Fant.
Mentioning the demonstrations in Greenville and across the country resulting from the death of George Floyd while in the custody of the Minneapolis police, Fant said: “We have to be able to do two things at the same time. We need to continue the struggle to free our nation from inequality and injustice, but at the same time we cannot lose sight of the devastating effects it has on the community and our nation. “
Repeating a message that state health officials seek to emphasize on a daily basis, Traxler said: “Masking and social detachment are how we solve the threat of this virus.”
“We are all looking forward to getting back to our normal lives before the pandemic,” she said. “But it will take us a lot longer to get there if we don’t stop the virus soon.”