S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster declared a state of emergency Friday afternoon as the number of coronavirus cases in the state ticked up.

As part of the emergency declaration, McMaster announced that schools in Lancaster and Kershaw counties will be closed for 14 days, focusing on the counties where state health officials have seen evidence of community spread of the virus. The order applies to all students and public school employees in the two counties except for emergency or essential personnel “whose presence is otherwise deemed necessary” by district leadership, according to McMaster’s order.

The state will work with the school districts to provide meals to students while schools are out, S.C. Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman said at the news conference with the governor.

McMaster also has asked Spearman to work with state health officials to determine if or when other school districts should close. And the state Education Department has asked school districts to submit virtual learning plans for two week’s worth of school — including paper and pencil work if students lack access to broadband Internet and Wi-Fi.

McMaster also announced that all state government offices will remain open.

At the governor’s press conference, state epidemiologist Linda Bell also announced that a 13th person tested presumptive positive for the coronavirus in the state.

The patient is a woman who had direct contact with another coronavirus patient, according to Bell.

As of Friday afternoon, Kershaw County had nine confirmed or presumptive cases of the coronavirus and Lancaster County had two. There are two more cases — one in Charleston and one in Spartanburg — but they do not appear to be spreading.

In an effort to curb the spread of the virus, the governor’s order went beyond K-12 schools in Lancaster and Kershaw counties. The order also suspends visitation to state and local correctional facilities, limits visitation to nursing homes to “end of life” situations, and activates price gouging laws.

McMaster also announced on Friday that he requested financial assistance from the federal Small Business Administration in the form of direct small business loans to help offset the impact of coronavirus on the state’s economy.

It’s unclear how effective it will be to close schools. A recently released U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report casts doubt on the effectiveness of closing schools in preventing the spread of disease and preventing hospitalizations.

For example, Hong Kong closed schools but it did not have more success containing the virus than Singapore, which left schools open, according to the report. An alternative to closing schools is “social distancing,” which means keeping a set amount of space between people, and staggering dismissal times, the report said.

Still, Lancaster state representatives from both parties — namely Mandy Powers Norrell, D-Lancaster, and Brandon Newton, R-Lancaster — agreed that calling the state of emergency was the right decision.

“The governor’s decision to close our schools in Lancaster County is a good one right now because we do need to limit group exposure,” Newton said. “This is the right step.”

Powers Norrell said there is a possibility that students at school could carry the virus home where there may be high-risk family members.

“Schools are some of our most densely populated places,” Powers Norrell said. “This was a hard call, but the right call.”

Darren Player, Lancaster County’s emergency management director, said the decision to close the schools and issue a statewide state of emergency does not require Lancaster County to declare a state of emergency or activate its county emergency operations center.

“Any decision to open the emergency operation center here is a local decision,” Player said.

County emergency personnel do not staff school campuses. Deputies from the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office are school resource officers, Player said.

The emergency declaration by the governor means if Lancaster County needs equipment, materials, or resources quickly, the declaration would likely make it happen faster.

The school closure decision does affect thousands of parents who will have to make plans for child care during the 14 days the schools are closed, Player said.

As of Friday afternoon, the number of confirmed or presumptive positive coronavirus cases in South Carolina had increased to 13, with six of those being confirmed by the CDC. Eleven of the presumed or confirmed cases are in Kershaw and Lancaster counties, which border each other.

Powers Norrell said earlier Friday that she would not be surprised if the two cases in Lancaster County are connected to the coronavirus outbreak in Kershaw County.

“We are neighboring counties and a lot of the people in the lower part of our county have a lot of contact with people in Kershaw County,’’ she said.

Bell, the state epidemiologist, said later Friday that DHEC is still investigating the cases, but the cases appear to be linked.

Across the county line, the coronavirus in Kershaw County has left many people on edge and wondering how it has affected so many people as the number of cases continues to rise.

In an interview with The State on Friday, Bell said there’s little doubt the virus was imported to the Camden area from an infected person from another part of the country or world. While Camden has a thriving horse industry that attracts travelers from across the world, Bell said it’s difficult to pinpoint an exact source.

“We know it didn’t just emerge in Camden, South Carolina, so obviously it was imported by some means,’’ she said, but “we may never find the source. Our goal at this point is not to identify the original source but to interrupt transmission in that community.’’

McMaster’s announcement followed President Donald Trump’s own declaration of a national state of emergency over the pandemic. It also followed emergency declarations made in other states including Florida and North Carolina, which can help their decentralized health agencies collaborate.

S.C. officials have held off on calling a state of emergency because the state has a centralized health agency, raising the bar for what triggers an emergency declaration, DHEC chief of staff Jennifer Read said Wednesday.

This story was originally published March 13, 2020 at 2:34 PM with the headline "Coronavirus in SC: Gov. McMaster declares state of emergency, closes some schools."