South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster issued Monday a work-to-home order to keep residents away from each other and from catching the coronavirus (COVID-19).
The Department of Health and Environmental Control asked the governor for the stay-at-home order. The order takes effect at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
The order allows people to go to work, essential businesses like grocery stores and pharmacies and visit family, but the governor suggests combining trips or making stops while commuting to work.
The new order doesn’t change or add to the additional categories of businesses that governor ordered closed as of 5 p.m. Monday. Jewelry stores, bookstores and department stores were among Monday’s list of closings. Already closed were dine-in restaurants, bars, beaches, lakes, nail salons, gyms, barber shops and other businesses.
Stores are ordered to limit shoppers to either 20 percent of capacity or five people per 1,000 square feet, whichever is less. Once a store reaches maximum capacity, a shopper cannot enter until another one leaves.
The new order attaches potential criminal penalties – a misdemeanor charge with a $100 fine or 30 days in jail – for someone out and about.
• The S.C. National Guard announced Monday it is planning to add 3,000 hospital beds in the next month to the 6,000 beds available in hospitals around the state by using closed medical facilities, arenas and tents. Hospital officials believe that will be enough beds to handle a spike in the coronavirus cases.
• 2,232 COVID-19 cases statewide was reported as if Monday afternoon with 48 deaths attributed to the virus, according to DHEC Monday night. The agency expects more than 8,000 people to contract the virus with about 3,500 to need hospitalization.
• DHEC’s Public Health Laboratory has conducted 7,950 tests for COVID-19, with 923 positive and 7,027 negative. A total of 21,384 tests by both DHEC’s Public Health Laboratory and private labs have been conducted in the state.
• McMaster expects South Carolinians filing for unemployment benefits to double to 200,000 this week.
• The governor encouraged churches to video-stream Easter worship, but, if live services are held, to hold them outdoors or allow for social distancing inside sanctuaries.