SC health officials announce 165 new COVID-19 cases, 3 deaths

South Carolina health officials on Saturday announced 165 new cases of the coronavirus, as well as three additional deaths.

Two of the deaths involved elderly individuals in Horry County who had underlying health conditions, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control said in a release.

The other death was a middle-aged Aiken County resident with no known underlying health conditions.

The new COVID-19 count brings South Carolina to 4,246 total cases and 119 deaths.

Greenville County saw the largest jump of new cases Saturday with 38. Locally, Richland County had 15 new cases, bringing its total county to 627 — the highest in the state. Lexington County, meanwhile, posted 17 new cases.

Though 119 people have died in South Carolina from the virus, the majority have gotten better: about two-thirds of S.C. patients or 67% have recovered from the disease, according to new DHEC data.

The first state cases were identified March 6 in Kershaw and Charleston counties. Since then new cases have been announced nearly every day, with more than 1,000 cases posted at the end of March.

Case counts have fluctuated as labs have sought chemicals needed to complete tests; however, daily case counts have continued to exceed 100 cases a day this month.

But state health officials say that about 86% of COVID-19 cases in South Carolina still have yet to be identified or tested. Because of that it’s likely that the state has more than 29,000 cases.

The number of cases is expected to continue to climb. The state will likely see its peak of identified cases around May 2, and DHEC officials have predicted that 217 residents will have died by Aug. 4.

Labs across the state finished 38,833 coronavirus tests by Friday; DHEC’s lab has completed 11,833 tests on its own — 1,450 of which have been positive.

Testing may increase over the coming weeks after DHEC distributed 15 rapid testing machines to struggling areas across the state Wednesday. In addition hospitals systems are developing their own tests, DHEC officials have said.

As of Friday 53% of S.C. hospital beds — or 6,017 — are being used, according to DHEC, leaving 5,334 open beds. State leaders say they plan to add about 3,000 additional beds across South Carolina by early May.

New coronavirus cases

• Abbeville (5)
• Aiken (1)
• Anderson (7)
• Beaufort (6)
• Berkeley (2)
• Chesterfield (4)
• Clarendon (3)
• Colleton (2)
• Darlington (7)
• Dillon (6)
• Dorchester (2)
• Edgefield (1)
• Florence (7)
• Greenville (38)
• Greenwood (2)
• Hampton (2)
• Horry (8)
• Jasper (1)
• Kershaw (5)
• Lexington (17)
• McCormick (1)
• Ocanee (2)
• Pickens (2)
• Richland (15)
• Saluda (1)
• Spartanburg (7)
• Sumter (5)
• Williamsburg (1)
• York (5)

This story was originally published April 18, 2020 at 3:57 PM.