Earlier this year, with vaccines available and cases dropping, many South Carolinians were hopeful that the worst of the COVID pandemic was behind the state. Instead, lagging vaccine uptake and the rise of the delta variant brought on a third surge of the virus for the state. Dr. Brannon Traxler, public health director for the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control gives us an update on the state of the pandemic in S.C., and reporter Avery Wilks shares what he learned about how stress and burnout is affecting people working behind the scenes during this pandemic.
It’s been over a year and a half since the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in South Carolina.
And, as much as people would like it to be, this pandemic is far from over.
Earlier this year, there was hope that this fall we would be edging closer to normalcy — that we would have overcome vaccine hesitancy enough that spread would have slowed.
But, that didn’t happen, and slow uptake of the vaccine combined with the delta variant brought on South Carolina’s third surge in COVID-19 cases.
Today, we’re taking a closer look at the state of the pandemic right now, and the strain that it’s causing for people tasked with fighting this pandemic every day.
On Monday, Sept. 13, we spoke with Dr. Brannon Traxler, director of public health for the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, or DHEC, about this surge and what makes it different from previous spikes in cases during this pandemic.
Post and Courier Columbia reporter Avery Wilks also gave us a behind-the-scenes look at his deep dive into DHEC and the strain and frustration the agency's workers are feeling in the midst of the state's third major surge in COVID-19 cases.
READ MORE: Inside DHEC, where workers fight anxiety, frustration, fatigue amid crush of pandemic
Visit the Post and Courier's COVID-19 dashboard.