COLUMBIA, S.C. _ Weeks after a crowd gathered for a funeral in southern Kershaw County, six people who were at the funeral have died from the coronavirus, including an elderly husband and wife, officials said.
All six of the dead were elderly _ over the age of 60 _ and all were African American, officials said. The elderly and African Americans have the highest fatality rate from coronavirus, according to national and South Carolina statistics.
Many who attended that funeral, held in the first week of March, were from Sumter County and have been in self-quarantine, said Sumter County Coroner Robbie Baker.
And four of the dead _ three women and one man _ were from the northern portion of Sumter County bordering Kershaw County, Baker said.
"They attended that same funeral and unfortunately passed away from COVID," Baker said of COVID-19, the sometimes serious respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus. "They came back to Sumter, got sick, and I was notified they had passed."
"Unfortunately, a large amount of people congregated at that funeral, somebody there was infected with it, spread it, and just didn't know it," Baker said.
Two of the dead were a husband and wife from Kershaw County. They both died days apart at a Prisma Health hospital in Richland County, where they were taken after becoming sick, Kershaw County Coroner David West said.
The couple had been married for more than five decades, were active church members and the heads of a multi-generational family, according to their obituaries.
The State is not naming the couple for the time being out of an effort, driven in this story by a request for privacy from a family member, to balance people's requests for non-identification with the public's right to know about the spread of a highly contagious and sometimes deadly disease.
The six deaths, which the coroners said almost certainly resulted from that funeral, underscore the highly contagious nature of the deadly coronavirus disease, which spreads by touch and physical contact as well as by tiny virus-laden droplets in people's breaths, sneezes or coughs, scientists say. It primarily attacks the lungs and respiratory system, but also is capable of striking the heart and kidneys, according to medical reports.
The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control was asked about the six deaths but as of midday Thursday had not commented on the matter.
Officials of two of South Carolina's major funeral home associations said that in recent weeks, funeral homes across the state are strongly encouraging services to be held in a manner that conforms to coronavirus distancing protocols, which call for small gatherings and keeping distance between people.
Gloria Walker Vessels, president of the South Carolina Morticians Association, said some funeral homes are video live-streaming funeral services while only a small core of family members and clergy are actually present at graveside.
"As death rates climbs, along with the number of persons who are taken ill, people are beginning to increasingly pay attention," said Vessels, of Anderson.
Brad Evans, president of the South Carolina Funeral Directors Association, said his members are trying to discourage large gatherings while encouraging small graveside services.
"In our profession, what's the most difficult thing to do? It is to not shake someone's hand, or not give someone a hug," Evans said. "The most important thing you can do is to show somebody you care, and to not express that in that way as we have done forever _ we are trying to do the best we can under the circumstances and trying to keep people safe."
Melissa Nolan, assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health, said that the COVID-19 virus can hang suspended in the air and also survive on nonporous surfaces, such as a coffin's exterior, for about five to seven hours.
"Hypothetically, if you have someone who is very sick, and they are shedding (the virus), and they walk up to the casket, and they cough, those virus particles will stay in the air around that environment for about an hour," she said. "If someone came into that environment, within six feet, they could become infected."
However, studies indicate that someone who has the coronavirus, but is not showing any COVID-19 symptoms, doesn't give off nearly as many virus particles and consequently, poses less risk to a bystander, she said.
But still, she said, "It's something to be cautious of."
The first two South Carolinians to test positive for the disease were in early March, DHEC said in a March 6 press release. On March 16, DHEC announced that two South Carolinians had died from COVID-19.
As of Wednesday afternoon, DHEC announced that more than 3,600 South Carolinians had tested positive for the disease and 107 had died. DHEC projects that by early August, 680 people in the state will die from COVID-19. And by May 2, more than 8,600 people will test positive, DHEC estimated Wednesday afternoon. However, DHEC officials say the actual number of people who are infected could be as much as nine times greater than what the tests show.
Elderly people are among the most vulnerable who die from the disease. Thirty-four percent of those who have tested positive in South Carolina are ages 61 and above, while that age group makes up approximately 90% of those who die from the disease.
African Americans in South Carolina are also among the most severely impacted by the disease. Although African Americans make up 27% of the state population, they are 41% of those who test positive. They are 56% of those who die.
