COLUMBIA, S.C. — As the state continues to move forward with reopening, some challenges are expected. The Reopen South Carolina Select Committee is working together to try and address what those issues may be.
That committee is made up of senators from across the state representing, Greenville, Lexington, Kershaw, Darlington and Beaufort areas. They discussed what legislative recommendations they should make moving forward with Accelerate SC.
Some of the main topics included education and ways to fix the digital divide around the state, ways to make voting more accessible for those who do not want to go to the polls, more testing availability and how to make sure they are helping citizens who are struggling from this pandemic.
Testing for coronavirus was one of the major concerns amongst the senators.
"It is completely unacceptable that we are at the bottom of the states in the level of testing our people," Senator Vincent Sheheen said.
Sheheen, who represents Kershaw, said more COVID-19 testing needs to happen now, statewide.
"We need to have test available for our citizens, our businesses, our children we the senate need to lead on that and make that happen," Sheheen said.
According to DHEC as of May 12, 89,968 tests have been performed in South Carolina. When State Epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell was asked this week why the Palmetto state is ranked one of the last in the nation for testing per capita, Dr. Bell said it has to do with a number of reason, including a shortage of supplies.
"Most states did have a shortage of supplies and prioritized testing for those who were stickiest initially," Dr. Bell said. "In some of our under resourced areas we didn't have access or ability to provide services in rural areas and that's why we are establishing testing sites and pop up clinics to address all of the gaps we previously saw."
While DHEC plans to ramp up testing statewide, Sheheen, who represents an area who saw the first COVID-19 positive cases in the state, said it needs to happen sooner rather than later.
"I lived with it earlier, we're all living with it now, but I lived with it earlier in a really acute way and that's been the big failure, frankly, is we need to ramp up testing in the state," Sheheen said.
Other senators on the committee agreed.
"From everything that I've learned, and I have studied this non-stop, is that testing whether it's PCR, whether it's antibody or the contact tracers, whether it's any number of things, it provides better data from which models can be devised toward better allocation of resources," Senator Tom Davis said.
The committee plans to invite agencies such as DHEC, the election commission, board of education and others to join them to make further recommendations