Horry County Council is taking risks with the public’s health by ending mask mandate

In an outrageously wrong move, the Horry County Council decided to not extend the emergency ordinance that requires wearing face masks in grocery stores and other businesses.

The mask mandate, which helps prevent the spread of COVID-19, will expire Oct. 30.

The County Council acted over the strong objections of two members, and within a day of the city of North Myrtle Beach renewing its face mask ordinance.

Horry County has more than 1,500 new cases since Oct. 1.

Masks will continue to be required in North Myrtle Beach, but they will only be “strongly encouraged” in neighboring, unincorporated Little River, where the county is the local government.

County is out of step

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic Gov. Henry McMaster has encouraged use of face coverings but has declined to require them; McMaster has maintained that requiring masks is a decision for local governments to make.

Once it was clear that McMaster would not order the use of masks, Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach properly required face coverings and other precautions and Horry County Council followed suit.

As the pandemic continued the city and county extended their anti-virus measures, although the Horry Council got into a kerfuffle about extending the county ordinance through October.

For unincorporated areas like Carolina Forest and Little River, the county provides fire protection, law enforcement and other services.

It’s better for everyone — residents, businesses and governments — when the county and its cities are on the same page on public health issues, particularly in eastern Horry County.

In some areas city boundaries are neither clear nor important to many folks.

A horrible decision

To their credit two Horry County Council members — Harold Worley and Gary Loftus — tried to keep the mask mandate in place, and it’s unfortunate that their efforts were rejected.

“The numbers are going in the wrong direction for us to be doing this, friends,” Worley said.

Worley is right: the numbers are getting stark both in Horry County and across South Carolina.

They include:

▪ 210 new COVID-19 cases in the North Myrtle Beach zip code, about twice double the number in other Horry zip codes over the same two weeks. At least 14 of those new cases have been linked to an unofficial shag dancing event.

▪ 743 COVID-19 patients in S.C. hospitals last week.

▪ A positive test rate of 11.9% in South Carolina, which is far from the 5% target goal.

It’s also unfortunate that Council Chairman Johnny Gardner has shown little interest in calling a special meeting to put unincorporated places back in sync with neighboring municipalities.

“All we’re saying is (that) Horry County is not extending the mandate,” Gardner said. “We are encouraging people to wear the masks.”

But that’s not enough.

Mandates work

Gardner seems to suggest that there’s not much difference between encouraging and mandating. But there is.

The mask ordinances encourage many customers to wear masks and thereby they are indirect enforcement tools.

Yes, mandates are difficult to enforce, but that’s not a good reason to end them.

Fortunately, responsible businesses in unincorporated areas will continue to operate as though the county mask mandate in in effect beyond Oct. 30.

Not extending the mask mandate disregards science and public health data.

It also bizarrely allows a minority of Horry County’s population to have its way in the midst of a global public health crisis — simply because they find face masks to be annoying.

Well, North Myrtle Beach perfectly addressed that complaint when it stated that “the inconvenience of [using] suitable face coverings is minimal compared to the risk to the health, safety and welfare of the community were no such rule imposed.”

And Council Member Loftus perfectly summed up Horry County Council’s decision when he called it “a terrible, terrible mistake.”

This story was originally published October 23, 2020 at 7:15 AM.