Vaccinated people don’t need masks, CDC says. How many people still wear them in Horry?
It’s not unusual to walk into an Horry County store, restaurant or bar and see few, if any, masks. But how many people are still sporting face coverings?
Even before updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated fully vaccinated people don’t need masks in most settings, mask use in the county was sparse, Sun News reporters found while tracking masks throughout the pandemic. After the latest federal guidelines were released, we again counted masks in areas across the country.
So, are people wearing masks in Horry County? It depends where you go.
Overall, reporters found nearly 70% of people without masks on Wednesday afternoon. This is the fourth Sun News count, and the one with the least amount of masks since last June, before face mask requirements were passed in area local governments.
The first count last June resulted in fewer than 25% of people wearing masks along the Grand Strand, even as COVID-19 cases surged and Myrtle Beach was identified by the state health department as a hot spot for the virus’ spread.
A jump in mask-wearers was recorded during a subsequent count in July, after Horry County and many cities passed mask requirements aimed at stemming the spread of the coronavirus. July’s count concluded roughly 80-90% of people observed wore masks at the same places as the June count.
November’s count, which took place the week before Thanksgiving, landed between the two summer counts. The November count took place after Horry County dropped its mask mandate, though some cities within the county kept theirs in place.
The CDC now recommends fully vaccinated people can go without a mask, with few exceptions. But it’s unlikely the only people without a mask were those who were fully vaccinated. While nearly 70% of people went maskless during our count last week, only about 50% of eligible Horry County residents have been vaccinated, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
Horry County’s daily coronavirus cases aren’t as severe as they were during previous counts, due to widespread availability of the vaccine and an estimated two-thirds of Horry residents immunized against the virus, either through having the disease or being vaccinated. In total, the county has 29,349 cases and 448 deaths of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, according to DHEC.
The count is meant to be a snapshot in time, not a scientific study of how many people opt to wear masks. Additionally, some stores are still requiring masks, though it doesn’t appear most enforce the policy. Some stores have altered their policies to reflect the CDC’s new guidance.
This count was done on a Wednesday afternoon, and results could have been different if it was done earlier or later in the day. We went to the same places where we’ve counted masks throughout the pandemic in order to compare the figures as accurately as possible.
Here are the results from our most recent count:
Tanger Outlets in North Myrtle Beach around 1 p.m. Wednesday
By our count, 131 people didn’t wear masks while 45 people did at Tanger Outlets in North Myrtle Beach. This count was done outdoors, and public health experts have said being in an open air environment decreases the risk of spreading the virus.
During our count in November, 77 people wore masks and 37 did not.
Bass Pro Shop at Myrtle Beach Mall around 1:45 p.m.
Bass Pro Shop had 43 people without a mask and 17 mask-wearers.
At our previous counts, there were more than 90 people in the store each time compared to only 60 during last week’s count. In November, we found 81 people wearing a mask and 28 people without one.
Home Depot in North Myrtle Beach around 2 p.m.
North Myrtle Beach’s Home Depot location showed 35 people without a mask, while 19 people wore a face covering. In November, the home improvement store had only seven people who opted against wearing a mask, compared to 48 people who did.
Food Lion on S.C. 9 outside of Longs around 2:30 p.m.
The grocery store outside of Longs was one of the closest splits we observed Wednesday, and one of the few where there were more people wearing a mask than without. While 11 people went without a mask, 15 did wear a face covering.
Last fall, we found 25 people with masks and five without them at the same store.
KJ’s Market IGA in Aynor around 3:15 p.m.
The sparsely populated grocery store had eight people wearing masks while 12 people didn’t cover their faces. Back in November, 34 people wore face masks and 18 didn’t.
Walmart on Church Street in Conway around 3:45 p.m.
Mask-wearers made up the majority of patrons in Conway’s Walmart on Wednesday afternoon. The store had 62 people in masks and 59 without them, compared to November when 178 people wore masks and 30 didn’t cover their faces.
Walmart is among the national chains that have changed their face mask policies in light of the recent CDC updates on face masks. Vaccinated customers no longer have to wear a face mask, though the policy will be done on the honor system since there’s no simple way to tell if someone’s vaccinated just by looking at them.
Lowe’s on U.S. 501 around 4:15 p.m.
Wednesday afternoon’s crowd in Lowe’s was made up mostly of people without a mask. Compared to 32 people without a mask, 12 people were covering their faces.
That’s a stark difference from November’s count, which found 74 people with a mask and 18 without a mask. July’s count was almost identical to that, with 74 people masked up and 19 people with a bare face.
Publix grocery store in Carolina Forest around 4:45 p.m.
Publix, which has signs at its entrance requiring masks, drew a majority of 40 mask-wearers outweighing the 18 people who didn’t wear a mask in the grocery store. The Carolina Forest location has had one of the highest percentages of people wearing masks in two of our previous counts, with 97 people masked and three deciding against it last November.
Ocean Boulevard from 14th Avenue North to 9th Avenue North around 5:30 p.m.
Ocean Boulevard continues to be the most out-of-balance place in our counts, with 181 people unmasked. Compare that to only 11 people wearing a mask. The boulevard was packed as vacationers enjoyed the beautiful beach weather from last week and the workday came to an end.
Similarly to the Tanger Outlets count, the Ocean Boulevard count was done outdoors, which could have had an impact on how many people were seen wearing masks.
The November count found 164 people without a mask and 34 wearing one, though it’s important to note that count was done during the tourism offseason and the area wasn’t crowded, allowing room for social distancing.
