SC sees 115 new cases of coronavirus, 10 more deaths
Coronavirus cases in South Carolina grew to 3,553 Tuesday after state health officials announced they had identified 115 new patients across the state.
Additionally, 10 more people have died after contracting COVID-19, bringing the statewide total to 97, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
Eight of the patients who died were older than 65 with underlying health conditions. One was from Aiken County, two were from Berkeley County, two were from Clarendon County, one was from Lancaster County and two were from Lexington County.
One patient was an elderly individual from Richland County. Officials are still investigating whether that patient had underlying conditions.
The last patient was from Horry County and was middle aged.
Greenville County saw the largest increase in coronavirus cases. In Richland County, officials identified 11 cases, and in Lexington County, they saw two.
Though the number of coronavirus cases continues to steadily increase in South Carolina, state health officials doubt that all the patients have been tested and identified. As of Monday, officials estimated more than 24,500 cases existed statewide, about 86% of which had not yet been identified.
Monday, DHEC released new COVID-19 projections. State health officials believe that by Aug. 4, about 572 South Carolinians will die because of the virus. They also reiterated that South Carolina has yet to experience the peak of new cases. That is projected to happen around May 2 when SC is estimated to have 8,677 cases.
The first case of the coronavirus in South Carolina was reported on March 6 in Kershaw and Charleston counties. New cases have been reported almost every day since. By the end of March, the state had posted more than 1,000 cases.
The daily case counts have varied from day-to-day, at times dipping and surging as labs deal with shifting availability of the chemicals needed to run tests. Daily cases counts have exceeded 100 cases a day every day since the end of March.
DHEC officials have received multiple shipments from the national stockpile of medical supplies.
Government officials have taken their own steps to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster issued a series of orders, including a mandatory “home or work” order, an order closing schools through the end of April, closing dining rooms in restaurants, closing nonessential businesses, cutting off access points to state beaches and waterways and allowing police to break up groups of three or more. McMaster also issued an executive order to allow furloughed workers to qualify for unemployment benefits.
New coronavirus cases
- Aiken: 9
- Anderson: 2
- Beaufort: 4
- Berkeley: 8
- Charleston: 2
- Chesterfield: 4
- Clarendon: 3
- Colleton: 1
- Darlington: 1
- Fairfield: 1
- Florence: 3
- Georgetown: 2
- Greenville: 27
- Hampton: 2
- Horry: 4
- Jasper: 2
- Kershaw: 6
- Lancaster: 1
- Lee: 2
- Lexington: 2
- Marion” 2
- McCormick: 1
- Newberry: 2
- Orangeburg: 1
- Pickens: 3
- Richland: 11
- Spartanburg: 2
- Sumter: 4
- Williamsburg: 1
- York: 2
This story was originally published April 14, 2020 at 3:58 PM.
