CAROLINA FOREST, SC (WBTW) – South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster is working on a plan to get the state’s economy going again after more than 180,000 people are out of work due to the pandemic.

One Loris woman tells News13 her place of work closed at the beginning of April, leaving her without pay, so she’s pushing for the state to reopen again. On the other hand, health officials with SCDHEC say coronavirus cases have not peaked yet.

“It’s kind of the unknown that’s probably scaring most of us that’s in this industry,” said Ke’la Elliott, an aesthetician and massage therapist from Loris who was recently laid off.

Elliott doesn’t know when she’ll see her next paycheck because she’s one of the 180,000 people in South Carolina without work due to the COVID-19 shutdown. “We have small children,” she said. “We’ve got to be able to feed them, cloth them, do what we need to do.”

But, Governor Henry McMaster said Monday he’s working on a rejuvenation plan.

“We want to get all these businesses going back as soon as we can,” he said.

Ke’la Elliott is one of the nearly 2,000 members of a new Facebook group called REOPEN SC.

“I don’t see why there’s any reason that the essential businesses can run safely, but the non-essential businesses can’t,” said Elliott.

“You can’t keep it closed down forever, right? We’re going to have to face the fact eventually, and I just see people suffering where I’m at and I don’t like it,” said Mark Holshouser, who created the Facebook page Saturday.

From a medical standpoint, SCDHEC projects just under 2,000 cases of the virus per week through the end of April and beginning of May.

Locally, McLeod Health recommends relying on the CDC’s guidance to see when it’s safe to reopen.

“We recommend relying on the CDC’s guidance and clinical opinions on when our state is expected to hit the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak and when it would be safe to adjust the social distancing guidelines… SCDHEC may have some information as well.” – McLeod Health

But, for Holshouser, his hours have been cut by half as an essential employee in seismology. “If this goes on for another month, then you’re going to have big time problems. As soon as government employees get laid off, it’s going to be a whole other ball game,” he said.

SCDHEC reports the state should see a peak in coronavirus cases between late April and early May.