Thursday had most S.C. virus cases in a day

COLUMBIA - South Carolina educators talked Thursday about how schools can prepare to have students return in about two months amid the COVID-19 pandemic even as nearly all indicators about the disease's spread in South Carolina are going up.

The AccelerateED task force created by the state education superintendent acknowledged the report they plan to finish by Monday could look significantly different if the spread of the virus doesn't slow.

It has dozens of recommendations including running school buses at 50% capacity with assigned seats and loading back to front, having teachers wear face shields instead of masks so students can see their faces, having desks face all directions and 6 feet apart as much as possible instead of collaborative learning tables and allowing districts to schedule five extra days of school in 2020 for kindergarten through eighth grade, preferably to help transition students from a school year that ended abruptly.

As the education task force met Thursday morning, South Carolina Public Health Director Joan Duwve was sharing grim news on the spread of COVID-19 to the state health board.

She told them the state would announce 687 new cases Thursday, the most since the pandemic started. The percentage of positive tests has hovered around 12% for several days, which is a dangerously high number in the indicator that the Department of Health and Environmental Control said it follows closely.

This brings the total number of people confirmed to have COVID-19 in South Carolina to 16,441 and those who have died to 588.

Officials said 513 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 on Wednesday across the state. Two weeks ago, the state had 398 people in the hospital with the virus, DHEC said.

Deaths are also increasing, but not as fast as other indicators for now. South Carolina has reported 588 COVID-19 deaths. Three weeks ago, the average number of deaths spread out over seven days was about six. Now it is around eight, according to DHEC figures.

Duwve again repeated that Gov. Henry McMaster does not plan to shut down businesses again, so health officials are pushing personal responsibility for fighting the virus such as washing hands, wearing masks and avoiding large groups whenever possible. And she gave the DHEC board a bleak assessment for the spread of COVID-19 in South Carolina over the next several weeks.

"We will continue to see that rapid rise until we start practicing what we know can prevent the spread of this infection," Duwve said.

16,441 people have tested positive for the virus in South Carolina since the first case was found March 6. About 40% of the cases have been reported in the past three weeks.

Sumter recorded 45 new cases on Thursday and has now had 556 confirmed cases and 19 deaths in the county, according to DHEC data. Lee County had no new cases on Thursday but remains with the highest rate of known infection in the state with 232 total cases and 19 deaths.

Clarendon County has had 320 cases and 41 deaths, a toll that for the first time in weeks dropped to fourth-highest in the state.

DHEC has been warning since the onset of the pandemic that there are more cases than those who test positive. Data estimate that for every confirmed case, there could be up to nine people who have the virus who remain unidentified.

The state also continues to suffer economic problems from the virus. Nearly 23,000 people filed claims for unemployment for the week ending June 6, ending a seven-week run of declining claims. More than 582,000 people have made jobless claims since the pandemic began, the state Department of Employment and Workforce reported Thursday.

Education task force members said they are aware of the increase in cases and the uncertainty that brings. A committee in charge of figuring out how instruction will take place is giving three different options depending on the rate of spread - from close to traditional classrooms if the spread is low to full online and distance learning if it is high.

Districts need to be preparing for distance learning now. Even if South Carolina doesn't have to return to it later this year, there needs to be plans that include access to broadband and technology for everyone just in case, said task force member Patrick Kelly, a government teacher and coordinator of professional learning for Richland School District 2.

"It wasn't as much distance learning as it was emergency deployed instruction," Kelly said of the final 10 weeks of school after the pandemic.

The task force also gave its recommendations for the extra five days of school that McMaster wants to use federal funding to provide.

Suggestions include evaluating what children know, letting elementary school children say goodbye to last year's teachers since school ended so abruptly and reviewing concepts missed. Kelly, however, said there are limits to what can be done.

"Teachers are miracle workers, but they aren't turning five days at the beginning of the year into 45 days of missed instruction," Kelly said.