Henry McMaster wearing a suit and tie: South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster called a meeting Monday about how the state is preparing for a possible coronavirus outbreak. © Provided by Columbia WIS TV South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster called a meeting Monday about how the state is preparing for a possible coronavirus outbreak.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - Gov. Henry McMaster wants the public to take common-sense precautions to prevent the spread of coronavirus: cover your mouth, wash your hands and stay at home if you have flu-like symptoms.

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‘Take it easy’: Gov. McMaster urges those with flu-like symptoms to stay home to prevent spread of coronavirus
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Right now, there are no cases of coronavirus, also known as COVID-2019, in South Carolina. But the governor wants to keep it that way.

McMaster called a meeting Monday morning at the South Carolina Emergency Operations Center in West Columbia to bring together public health officials, doctors, the National Guard and others.

Why are officials concerned about coronavirus? Scroll down to find out.

Following the meeting, officials shared the latest information with the public.

McMaster said coronavirus is not airborne.

“It is transferred by contact,” he said. “It is in droplets. When someone sneezes or coughs, if those droplets...go on a surface or on a person’s hand and they touch your hand and you touch your face -- if they have this virus, you can get the virus. It’s just that simple.”

The governor said simply washing hands with warm water and soap is enough to kill the virus, and he recommended people wash their hands often throughout the day.

People should wash their hands for at least 20 seconds at a time, officials with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) said. That’s about the length of time it takes to sing the Alphabet Song.

DHEC also recommended people disinfect hard surfaces often.

“This is an easy virus to prevent,” McMaster said.

He wants people to use common sense if they start to feel sick.

“Do what mama told you,” the governor said. “Go home, go to bed, take it easy and call your doctor.”

DHEC officials said the agency is keeping in touch with people who travel internationally to places where coronarvirus is present and return to South Carolina.

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“We ask them to stay home and stay away from crowds for 14 days," Dr. L. Brannon Traxler, a preventive medicine physician who works with DHEC, said. “And we help them monitor themselves.”

Testing for the coronavirus is now possible in the state without sending samples off to Atlanta, Rick Toomey, the director of DHEC, said.

He said they worked with the CDC to make that happen, and testing capabilities will soon be sent to regional hospitals.

The state has the capacity to test about 100 samples a day from patients who may have coronavirus. Officials said right now, they aren’t testing anywhere near that number a day.

Turnaround for test results is about 24 to 48 hours, officials said, but most of the time it takes less than that.

The governor said because coronavirus is not airborne, people do not need to wear a mask.

“This is nothing to panic about or to rush to the stores about,” McMaster said. “There are normal ways to protect yourself and be safe and be happy and go on about your business. If things change we’ll certainly alert.”

As of Monday, the number of coronavirus cases in the United States is low -- less than 100 -- and at this point, six people have died.

McMaster promised health officials would continue to meet to “make sure South Carolina is way ahead of everybody in getting the best information.”

WHY ARE OFFICIALS CONCERNED ABOUT CORONAVIRUS?

Symptoms of coronavirus mimic those of the flu, officials said. However, worldwide, the coronavirus has been killing people at a much higher rate than flu.

If the virus begins spreading more rapidly in America, that is what concerns officials.

For more context -- a study by the Chinese CDC found coronavirus kills about 2 percent of people who contract it. In America, flu has killed about 0.2 percent of those infected over the past 10 years, the CDC said.

The people most likely to die from coronavirus are 80 and older, the Chinese CDC study found. For that group, nearly 15 percent of people who had coronavirus died from it.

At the time of the study, no one under the age of 10 had died from the virus in China, and less than 0.5 percent of people under 50 who got it had died.

But for older age groups, the mortality rate for the disease rose sharply.

For people in their 50s who contracted the virus, 1.3 percent died; for people in their 60s, 3.6 percent died; 8 percent of those in their 70s died and 14.8 percent who got the virus died if they were 80 and older.

Most of the people killed by coronavirus in China were in their 60s and 70s.

However, China’s CDC said 80 percent of cases of the virus are mild.

NOTE: This story uses data from the Chinese CDC because that is where the coronavirus originated.

Copyright 2020 WIS. All rights reserved.

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