COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) says COVID cases are on the rise again.
According to the department's most resent data, South Carolina is seeing a steady rise in COVID-19 cases. In the last month, COVID cases increased by 31.7% and hospitalizations are up 53.3%, while vaccinations went down by 27.8%, according to DHEC
Dr. Helmut Albrecht, an infectious disease specialist with Prisma Health, says he’s tending to 50 COVID patients a day, saying, “They’re massively increasing. I have never managed that many cases per day or per week.”
He went on to say, “We think this is the probably highest spike we’ve seen. But nobody’s noticing it.”
He says people are suffering COVID fatigue and they're letting their guards down. “Nobody wants to do anything about it anymore. So there's essentially zero masking, there’s zero notification, there’s zero tracking, there's zero tracing," said Dr. Albrecht.
In a statement DHEC said, “If we see vacationing and public gatherings without masking as community levels increase, and less preventative measures are being taken, we can expect cases to continue to increase.”
NEWS 19 asked Midlands residents if the rise in cases is a concern to them.
“No, no it doesn’t worry me at all,” one resident said.
Another agreed, saying, “I don’t think it's as relevant in my life as it was in over the last two years, but it’s still on my mind.”
One wanting to put the pandemic in the past, said, “When are we finally going to move on from this?"
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Some residents said masks are no longer needed, while others said they’re vital.
“I don’t think its necessary that everybody needs to wear a mask just yet,” one resident said.
“I would definitely encourage people to wear their mask," a nurse practitioner said. "We don’t know who out there has compromised immune systems and we don’t know who’s walking around with COVID.”
According to the CDC's community level tracker, Lexington, Orangeburg, Richland and Sumter counties are experiencing medium transmission levels.