Myrtle Beach, Horry County look to the future as more opens from coronavirus pandemic
More and more of Horry County and Myrtle Beach are reopening as leaders look ahead to a post-COVID-19 Grand Strand.
Last week started with Gov. Henry McMaster lifting the “work or home” for South Carolina residents. By the end of the week, McMaster announced restaurants will soon be allowed to have customers inside.
“We’re making progress,” McMaster said on Friday. “We are aware a lot of people are out of work.”
Starting Monday, restaurants will be allowed dining room service at 50 percent capacity. It is the first time in more than a month that establishments will be allowed to have customers inside for more than picking up a to-go order.
McMaster also hinted at an announcement on the horizon regarding gyms and salons.
The moves come on the heels of Myrtle Beach area hotels reopening and beach access being available to the public. Restaurants were also allowed to resume outdoor dining last week. The reopenings are designed to help restart the economy and get people back to work after a month of closure and restrictions to slow the spread of coronavirus.
Still, Horry County continues to see an increase in its total number of confirmed coronavirus cases with 251 people infected as of Friday evening.
Hotels welcome visitors
In the past week, Myrtle Beach area hotels saw their first customers in about a month. The reopening was welcome news for many looking to get away from coronavirus restrictions and for some sun fun. It has led to a noticeable increase in out-of-state plates on Grand Strand roads.
“We’re just working hard to make sure we have a safe environment and hopefully we can have a successful summer where we keep things under control and can bring a lot of folks into Myrtle Beach. Candidly, what that looks like I really don’t know at this point and don’t know if any of us know,” said Matt Klugman, chief operating officer of Vacation Myrtle Beach Resorts.
Matthew Brittain, chief executive officer of Brittain Resorts & Hotels, said even with the reopenings, they expect to see less summer business. Typically, they have more than 90 percent hotel occupancy in the summer months.
“We clearly don’t expect anything near normal summer occupancies for sure,” Brittain said. “I think the public safety is the first accomplishment we want to have as a goal, so that will limit any secondary goals of reaching a maximum occupancy or an average daily rate. We hope to maybe get 50 percent of July. That would be nice.”
Hotel occupancy nosedived at Myrlte Beach hotels during the pandemic’s closures. There were some weeks where hotel occupancy was below 4 percent and for the week of April 26-May 2 it was at 9.8 percent, according to a Coastal Carolina University research group.
Looking ahead
Government leaders and some local attractions are also preparing for more openings and resumption of traditional activities. Myrtle Beach city facilities could reopen to the public in about two weeks, according to city spokesperson Mark Kruea. The timeline isn’t set stone, officials said.
“We’ll need to reopen with new safety measures in place, both for the protection of the public and staff,” Kruea said. “Social distancing is going to be the new norm for awhile.”
The Horry County Council approved making July 13 the sanctioned date for the Harley Davidson motorcycle rally that was postponed because of coronavirus. The move means the government will issue event and vendor permits for that week.
The Myrtle Beach Speedway announced that it plans to resume racing on May 23.
Horry County School is working to determine how it will hold graduations for high school seniors. The district is mulling 10 options: traditional, postponement, indoors with social distancing, outdoors with social distancing, a ceremony with no guest attendees, a drive-in ceremony, drive-up ceremony, smaller groupings of students, individual celebrations, and a virtual ceremony.
Coastal Carolina University plans to hold on-campus classes in the fall.
The openings bring good news to the area’s economy, which was decimated by the closures to slow the virus’ spread. New unemployment claims have slowed in Horry County, but continue to be higher than most other South Carolina counties. The county has seen more than 50,000 new unemployment claims since the pandemic started. Horry County has about 145,000 in its labor force, according to federal data.
Increased testing
South Carolina health officials stated that with the ease of restrictions, they plan to increase testing across the state. The hope is to test 2 percent of the state’s entire population each month. So far, the state has given more than 73,000 COVID-19 tests. The hope is to increase the state’s testing rate to 110,000 a month.
But, nobody seems to know how many of those tests will be done in Horry County.
South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control officials also said they work with other states to learn if a tourist possibly exposed others in South Carolina to coronavirus.
Health experts said if a visitor tests positive after returning home, that state will let South Carolina know if the sick person had close contact with people in the Palmetto State. The process is called contact tracing.
“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.”
But, if an out-of-towner is infected, they are counted in their home state, so it wouldn’t appear in Horry County’s or South Carolina’s totals. What officials haven’t said is if they will let the public know if an outbreak that involved tourists staying in or visiting one location.
This story was originally published May 10, 2020 at 5:30 AM.
