DHEC tracks tourist coronavirus cases, but they likely won’t be reported in SC
With hotels and beaches open across the Myrtle Beach area, many locals are concerned about the potential increase in coronavirus cases.
Social media and private conversations are filled with comments about tourists bringing COVID-19 to Horry County. But, what happens if that person visits without showing symptoms, only to return home and later test positive for coronavirus? Does South Carolina ever find out? Does the state or public learn of a potential outbreak in its state even though the sick might be from elsewhere?
The answer is yes, with a “but.”
Health officials learn of visitors who had close interactions with people in South Carolina, but they aren’t counted in the county or state’s daily count for positive cases.
How it works
Last week, hotels and public beach accesses in Myrtle Beach reopened despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Government officials have put restrictions on hotels to try and limit the virus’ spread and health officials encourage social distancing at the beach.
With the restrictions lifted, there has been a noticeable uptick in traffic and out-of-state license plates in the Myrtle Beach area. That has caused some to worry about a second spike in the number of cases in the area.
Officials from the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control said if a person is diagnosed with COVID-19 in another state, investigators there will start a process called contact tracing. That is when investigators work to identify who had close contact with the patient.
The process helps to identify those who need to isolate and slow the virus’ spread.
If the visitor had close contact with people in South Carolina, their home state informs DHEC. DHEC does the same for South Carolinians who tested positive and visited other areas.
“The disease control process of case identification, isolation, and contact tracing occurs for all cases, regardless of where they were infected or were located while infectious,” DHEC officials said in a statement. “This process can occur in collaboration with other states as necessary.”
Cases, however, are reported based on the person’s county and state of residence, which is a standard practice, DHEC officials noted. That means if someone is from Ohio, they are counted in Ohio’s totals. So they wouldn’t show up in the DHEC data or the county totals released every afternoon.
Local health officials said if there was an outbreak in an area, Myrtle Beach for example, an uptick would be noted among the residents.
“If a location were to experience an outbreak, the increase of cases would be reflected in the area’s permanent residents as well,” officials said.
As of Tuesday evening, there are 236 positive coronavirus cases in Horry County, including 18 deaths. However, the Horry County rate of cases per 100,000 people is 66.65, well behind the rate seen in Richland County (234.99) and Florence County (130.48) for comparison’s sake.
DHEC officials have not responded to follow-up questions about if the public would know if an outbreak occurred that involved out-of-state visitors to the Grand Strand. For example, would DHEC inform the public if several people who stayed on the same floor of a hotel returned to their home state and later tested positive?
When The Sun News asked Horry County officials during Wednesday’s news conference if there any procedures in place for Horry County tourists or locals to be notified later if an outbreak is traced back to a hotel or attraction, they didn’t answer, referring testing questions back to DHEC.
This story was originally published May 7, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
