The Immediate In

MAY 14–20, 2020

WWW.YOURISLANDNEWS.COM COVERING BEAUFORT COUNTY

Clockwise from left, Jack Duncan, Sophia and Scarlett Mercier and Lucy Duncan, take a break from their coloring books to mug for the camera Monday at Fish Camp on 11th Street in Port Royal. The popular seafood restaurant opened its doors Monday for dining in per South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster’s orders regarding social distancing. Seated in the background are the children’s parents and grandparents, Mickey and Judy McAllister, Jennifer Duncan and Denise and Mark Mercier, who gathered for a late Mother’s Day celebration. Photo by Bob Sofaly.

County extends state of emergency

Dine-in eating returns; McMaster to open close contact services, gyms, pools

By Mike McCombs

Though Governor Henry McMaster is opening South Carolina back up at a steady pace – dine-in service at restaurants returned Monday and close contact service providers, fitness and exercise centers, commercial gyms, and public or commercial pools will be able to open in a limited capacity on Monday, May 18 – Beaufort County’s State of Emergency will go on for at least another month, though you may not notice at all.

Beaufort County Council voted Monday night to extend the county’s state of public health emergency until June 11. The declaration would have expired May 16.

Under the state of emergency, County Administrator Ashley Jacobs was given the power to enact an emergency operations plan and make certain unilateral decisions about county operations in response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

According to Beaufort County spokesperson Liz Farrell, all this extension does is ensure that should a development require swift response, Jacobs will be able to act. Farrell said it should not affect the average citizen or their ability to go about their dayto-day lives.

Currently, the majority of county departments, facilities and buildings are closed and county business is being conducted remotely or by telephone and email.

Additional businesses to re-open Monday, May 18

It was early March and, as Singer recalled by phone recently, the first cases had already hit the United States.

“That’s when things really started happening behind the scenes,” she said, as she remembers when the hospital began ramping up its emergency planning.

Members of the hospital’s emergency management team were meeting two to three times a day. Staff were taking stock of ventilators and PPE, or personal protection equipment. Visitors had been limited to one per patient, but that would soon

NATIONAL NURSES WEEK

Nurse Lauren Singer takes a call in the emergency room at Beaufort Memorial Hospital. Photo by Mindy Lucas.

‘Doing what I need to do to help people’

Nurses at Beaufort Memorial Hospital talk about being on the frontlines of COVID-19

By Mindy Lucas

ER nurse Lauren Singer remembers the first time she saw a coronavirus patient at Beaufort Memorial Hospital.

EDITOR’S NOTE

For National Nurses Week, May 6-12, The Island News reached out to two nurses for some insight as to what it’s like working on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic.

change as hospitals everywhere would eventually go on lockdown, barring any visitors for patients.

Then one day, there she was. Singer’s first COVID-19 patient.

She may not have been the first for the hospital, but she was certainly Singer’s first.

“I vividly remember looking at this patient and thinking something isn’t right,” she said. “I couldn’t put my hand on what it was.”

The patient had come in for another emergency, but her vital signs just weren’t adding up, Singer said. She was also “walking and talking” and for the most part seemed fine.

“I would say my little alarm went off,” she said.

As Singer would soon learn, the patient had COVID-19.

“I think that was the turning point for everyone,” she said, explaining that’s when she and ER staff realized that some patients could, in fact, look mostly fine or be “walking and talking” and still have the virus.

“That’s what was scary about it,” Singer said.

As she went on to explain, a patient could have suffered a fall or dizzy spell and not really know why. Medical staff would then find his or her oxygen levels to be dangerously low.

Or a patient may have a cough and downplay its significance.

“So we may say, that sounds like a unique cough. How long have you had that,” she said.

Sometimes patients didn’t know or even realize they had the virus.

To make matters worse, COVID-19 began popping up around the southeast at a time when the region’s allergy season was only just getting started.

So Singer and the rest of the ER team had to “dig deep,” she said.

They learned not only to ask the usual questions, such as have you traveled lately or have you been exposed to someone who recently tested positive for COVID-19, but to pay attention

Close contact service providers, fitness and exercise centers, commercial gyms, and public or commercial pools will be able to open in a limited capacity on Monday, May 18.

Close contact service providers include the following businesses: Barber shops, hair salons, waxing salons, threading salons, nail salons and spas, body-art facilities and tattoo services, tanning salons, massage

SEE EXTEND PAGE A3

SEE NURSE PAGE A4

Body of missing diver found

By Mindy Lucas

The body of missing scuba diver, Alan Devier, 49, of North Charleston, has been found.

Devier’s body was discovered on Bay Point Island between 3:30 and 4 p.m. Sunday when a call came in to 911, according to David Lucas, regional public information coordinator for S.C. Department of Natural Resources.

The Beaufort County Coroner’s Office had confirmed the body’s identity and notified Devier’s family, Lucas said on Monday.

Known to hunt for fossils and sharks teeth in Port Royal Sound, Devier was last seen diving about three miles offshore near the entrance of Port Royal Sound on Tuesday, April 28, officials said earlier.

The United States Coast Guard suspended its search on Sunday, May 3, after searching more than 7,589 square miles. Multiple agen

SEE DIVER PAGE A2

Memorial Day events canceled

From staff reports

The coronavirus (COVID19) pandemic, forcing Americans to limit social contact and avoid huge gatherings, continues to claim casualties, both real and symbolic.

Beaufort has suffered another.

The Edward Wallace Camp No. 21 of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, Beaufort (SUVCWB) announced Monday, May 11 in a letter the decision to cancel the 2020 Memorial Day events in Beaufort.

These events include the Memorial Day Parade and the Memorial Day Ceremony at Beaufort National Cemetery.

“While we know this is disappointing, we hope you can understand the steps we’re taking to help keep our members and attendees safe,” Rev. Elijah Washington, Edward Wallace Camp No. 21 Commander, said in an email. “We look forward to hosting the 2021 Memorial Day events next year.”