COLUMBIA, S.C. — Governor Henry McMaster wants to keep citizens formed on it’s progress in combating COVID-19.
McMaster said in his recent press briefing, “when the virus hit, it was chasing us. Now, we are chasing the virus.”
Meaning, the state has a plan of increased testing and contact tracing, so we can get back to our quality of life. McMaster said, “we know what the disease looks like, and we know its capacity.”
So far, 68,766 tests have been done in South Carolina for COVID-19. Almost 7,000 have been positive.
The testing will begin with nursing facilities. DHEC will start testing residents and staff members, roughly 40,000, at every nursing home in South Carolina beginning on Monday, May 11th.
The testing will then expand to under-resourced minority and rural communities and mass testing in urban areas. Officials say African Americans and other minorities have been disproportionately impacted by the virus. African Americans represent 44 percent of Coronavirus cases. They’re working to set up mobile testing clinics to address this issue and increase access to care.
Officials say the federal government will provide more tests for this effort during the months of May and June. The goal is to test 110,000 people. That’s 2 percent of the population.
Contact tracers will be in touch with people who have COVID-19, link them to resources, follow their progress and monitor their case. They’ll ask about others they’ve been in contact with. They have 230 contact tracers and want to add more. There is online training for people to learn how to be part of the program.
As for the daily Coronavirus numbers update, DHEC has announced 97 new cases of the virus and 9 additional deaths. This brings the total number of people confirmed to have COVID-19 in South Carolina to 6,936 and those who have died to 305.
McMaster did not mention any additional reopenings, but he said he may make an announcement by weeks-end, depending on if it’s safe to do so.
