Will Columbia go back to COVID restrictions? ‘Very difficult right now,’ mayor says

As coronavirus cases and hospitalizations spike across South Carolina, city of Columbia officials are not yet committing to an attempt to return to COVID restrictions such as a mask ordinance or the closure of city buildings.

The Palmetto State has seen a surge of new cases of the coronavirus, particularly in the last week. In just the last four days alone there have been 4,633 new cases of the virus reported by the state Department of Health and Environmental Control. There are also now 453 COVID-19 patients in state hospital beds, a quick rise from two weeks ago when there were 192 coronavirus patients in SC hospitals.

Meanwhile, the state continues to drag along in regard to vaccinations. According to DHEC, about 50 percent of South Carolinians have at least one dose of the vaccine and 44 percent of the state is completely vaccinated. The Palmetto State is 40th in the nation in the percentage of vaccinated citizens, per The New York Times.

And on Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control updated its masking guidance, and recommended that fully vaccinated people wear masks indoors in places where the coronavirus is spreading rapidly.

Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin said city council’s recent discussions on COVID restrictions have been centered on the city’s employees and trying to maximize vaccinations among the municipal workforce. However, he said there have not yet been serious talks about any wide mandates.

“We have not had a discussion yet around citywide restrictions,” Benjamin told The State on Monday. “It would be very difficult to put that genie back in the bottle. The reality is that every challenge we have faced as a society is entirely predictable. We knew the Delta (COVID) strain would be the dominant strain in the country. There is so much more as a country, a state and, yes, as a city that we could all be doing.

“If, in fact, we see an opportunity for us to move forward together in passing some new restrictions to preserve human life, while, at the very same time, protecting our livelihoods, I’m willing to lead in that space. It’s just very difficult right now.”

Benjamin said part of that difficulty when considering a return to restrictions is that the current coronavirus surge has most seriously affected the unvaccinated. According to a DHEC analysis, 93% of new COVID cases in June in SC were among individuals who were not fully vaccinated. Meanwhile, 90% of COVID deaths in June were people who were not fully vaccinated.

“I’m all ears, and we are paying attention to the data as we always have,” Benjamin said. “But we will see whether or not our citizens have the will to be ready to make sharp changes to their way of life, if indeed the Delta variant gets out of control.”

The third-term mayor added Monday that he was “not yet certain that the public will is there to endure significant restrictions,” adding “the worst thing you can do is have a law that no one follows.”

Specifically as it relates to masks, Republican Gov. Henry McMaster clouded the issue in May when he issued an order that prohibited any South Carolina county or municipality from relying on prior gubernatorial orders or the state’s pandemic-related state of emergency as the basis for a local mask mandate.

However, Columbia Councilman Howard Duvall, the former longtime director of the state Municipal Association, said he believes the city could, in theory, issue a mask ordinance, so long as it is not predicated on a prior gubernatorial order.

But in a Monday conversation with The State, Duvall said city council has not had any discussions — either as a group or among individual members — about returning to a mask ordinance or other citywide restrictions.

“We have the authority to put on our own mask ordinance, regardless of what Governor McMaster wants to do for the state,” Duvall said. “I don’t think there’s a will on council to do that. We need to use every form of persuasion we can to get those people who are refusing to get the vaccination vaccinated.

“They are self-selecting to be the next COVID victims. By not getting a vaccination, they are putting their lives in danger and they are putting their families’ lives in danger.”

The city has been vigorously pushing vaccines through the It’s Your SHOT campaign, which has included TV ads, vaccination events, heavy web messaging and even “wrapping” city vehicles with pro-vaccination messages. And it has seen vaccine rates slowly climb. On June 11, 48% of people in Richland County had gotten at least one shot of the vaccine. As of July 25, nearly 54% of county residents had gotten their first shot, per DHEC data. That was the fifth highest rate among counties in South Carolina.