People That Are Totally Not Avoiding Contact In South Carolina Show How Incredibly Irresponsible People Can Be

South Carolina doesn’t have an official “stay-at-home” order, and the people are hanging out freely in large companies.

Damjan

• Published in Interesting
• May 11, 2020

The Coronavirus situation in the US is handled very differently depending on the state. There is no nation-wide consensus or an official order about how people should behave -each state has its own protocols. South Carolina got into the center of attention because the recommendations of social distancing are not followed there at all.

The New York Times reported that there are currently 1,554 reported cases of the COVID-19 infection and 31 deaths in the state of South Carolina. But the state still hasn't declared a "stay-at-home" order, even though Governor Henry McMaster has proclaimed a state of emergency. There are some mixed messages, and it looks that people are not taking the whole situation seriously.

Sheriff Lee Boan from Kershaw County says there are clear indicators that Governor McMaster is "slowly tightening down" the state. "He has already closed nonessential businesses and has been encouraging citizens to stay home since the beginning. I feel we are already 60-70% into a stay home order. The stay home order is not far away." 

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Sheriff Boan says that people who don't follow social distancing guidelines may be fined and even get jail time. "SC Section 16-7-10. It carries a $100 fine and up to 30 days in jail. We are dispersing crowds as we see them. Citizens are getting better. It is a major culture change for us all to stay away from each other. But, we are all getting better at it."

His colleagues are doing well. "No deputies at my department have been infected with COVID-19. We have had as many as six deputies out on quarantine due to 'indirect contact.' They were around someone who was around someone with coronavirus."

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"We are well staffed now with all of our School Resource Officers (SRO), court deputies, and civil process deputies now assigned to patrol. We have more deputies on patrol now than we have ever had. We haven’t had the need to work over-time yet. But, we are prepared to do so. We also have some deputies that have volunteered to be reserve ambulance drives in the event that our EMS partners get understaffed."

Sheriff Boan added that he thinks they are in the "calm before the storm" and haven't been hit hard. "Yet," he concluded.

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Governor McMaster ordered state parks shut down, and beaches and lakes are now off-limits. He also instructed that non-essential businesses, like gyms and hair salons, to close. All public schools are also closed, and students are learning online.

Finally, the governor invited all citizens to stay at home. However, many in South Carolina think that this isn’t sufficient to stifle the spread of Coronavirus without an official “stay-at-home” directive. Citizens still can (and they very much do) go out for any reason whatsoever.

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South Carolinian Democrats and Republicans are urging McMaster to issue the order. “I don’t understand why he hasn’t taken that step and told the citizens under the force of law you must stay at home,” Democrat Seth Rose expressed his concern, bearing in mind that South Carolina’s neighbors North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and Florida have all issued “stay-at-home” instructions.

“We should not be recommending you stay home unless you want to go out,” Rose said.

Sheriff Boan wanted to send a message: “It’s better to stay six feet apart now than to be six feet under later.” He is right.

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Damjan