COVID-19 Updates

Whitmer.

The group also made threats against president trump, obama and several congressman.

>> jon: coronavirus on the rise again here in the lowcountry.

Dhec reporting 918 cases statewide thursday.

54 coming from charleston county.

Dorchester county logged 22 and berkeley county reported 16.

Nearly 7,000 people tested and out of those a little more than 13% came back positive.

>> clemson star quarterback trevor lawrence testing positive for covid.

He is currently self-quarantining.

In a statement he is doing well with mild symptoms but not be available for this week's game against boston college.

While we certainly will miss trevor this is an opportunity for other guys to step and up we are excited about competing against a very good bc team on saturday.

Go tigers.

>> jon: preparing to get hands on vaccine once clears approval and not everyone will be able to get it at once.

The distribution will be broken down into four phases.

Phase i including healthcare workers.

The final phase stage four, that's where the vaccine would go to the general public.

Health officials say it could take awhile to reach the last step.

>> leah: teacher shortages having plaguing before the pandemic started.

>> jon: new teaching models and has the trend changed any?

Brooke schwieters has more.

>> brooke: masked up and off to school or learning from home?

Creating for quality and safety.

Since september 18 charleston county teachers resigned citing the virus as reason for leaving.

12 teachers have resigned in dd2.

20 are on long-term employment leave.

The district says those teachers, quote, did not necessarily attribute reason to covid-19.

In berkeley county school district 11 teachers submitted resignations.

Of those 11 six citing covid as the reason.

>> when you start extrapolating number like that out across the state.

You're going to be looking at hundreds of teachers that have resigned since the start of this school year.

>> brooke: none of the tri-county school districts have expressed concerns of teacher shortages.

Ccsd, for example, using long-term subs.

The position filled on paper.

But patrick kelly from the teacher's association worries about quality of education.

>> you may have the body but not level of instruction the students need.

>> brooke: for education recruitment retention and advancement there are 520 vacancies statewide for the school year.

Down 11% from the prior school year but kelly says given recent resignations we may be back where we are or worse.

>> if we can't find a way to maintain our teacher workforce and to retain the great teachers in this state, we are looking at not just a one year pandemic but a multi-ier problem that our education system will be trying to account for.

>> we asked each teacher and they had encouraging use of fmla, small classes, specialized ppe and reassignment of job duties.

In charleston county brooke schwieters fox 24 news.

>> leah: we reached out to the south carolina department of education for a statement.

We are still waiting to hear back.

A report from the center for education recruitment retention and advancement is expected in december.

It should paint a better picture of this year's vacancy numbers.

>> jon: as coronavirus cases continue to surge facing another attack.

Cyber attack and russia is targeting that could interrupt medical treatment and even cause death.

They are alerting workers there may be suspicious e-mails.

>> something bad that compels you to fill out where information now stolen.

>> jon: ransom ware already affected five hospitals across the country.

This week hundreds more at risk.

>>> new report revealing americans have changed day-to-day habits so much it could have serious health implications.

Researchers found that one in four americans are sleeping less during this pandemic.

>> leah: one of five say they are drinking more alcohol.

People also listed using tobacco and not getting enough exercise as their unhealthiest habits.

Report also found nearly half of those surveyed are making healthier changes like eating