More than 100 South Carolinians died due to the coronavirus, health officials say
South Carolina surpassed 100 coronavirus-related deaths, state health officials announced Wednesday.
Ten additional COVID-19 deaths, announced by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, bring the statewide death total to 107.
To mark the somber occasion, leaders of the state’s capital city, Columbia, lowered flags on all public buildings to half staff Wednesday afternoon.
“We know the grief families feel for their loved ones, many who have died alone and afraid in hospitals and care centers,” said Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin. “Lowering the flag of Columbia is an expression of our understanding of the suffering so many grieving families are feeling right now.
Of those whose deaths were announced Wednesday:
- Two were middle aged with underlying health conditions, and were from Richland and Sumter counties, DHEC reported.
- The others were 65 or older, most with underlying health conditions. Two were from Kershaw County, where the virus first appeared in March. The others hailed from Colleton, Georgetown, Greenville, Lancaster and Spartanburg counties.
- State health officials are still investigating the health condition of an elderly McCormick County patient who died.
Officials also announced they had identified 105 new cases of the coronavirus in the state, bringing the statewide total to 3,653 cases.
Greenville County saw the largest increase in cases with 27 new cases.
Locally, Richland County saw 13 new cases, and Lexington County saw 10.
While health officials are identifying new cases each day, they doubt that they’ve tested every patient in the state. As of Wednesday, officials estimated that more than 26,000 cases existed statewide, about 86% of which had not yet been identified.
S.C. cases and deaths are expected to continue to increase. The outbreak’s peak is projected to occur around May 2. And new COVID-19 projections by DHEC predict 572 South Carolinians will die from the virus by Aug. 4.
Thus far, labs across the state have performed 34,733 coronavirus tests, 10,935 of which were done at DHEC’s lab. As of Wednesday, 1,304 tests done at DHEC’s lab have been positive.
Testing will become faster in parts of the state. Health officials distributed 15 rapid testing machines to hard-hit regions that can return a positive coronavirus result in minutes. Some machines may not be up and running for a while as officials seek out a chemical needed for testing that is in high demand.
South Carolina saw its first coronavirus cases March 6 in Kershaw and Charleston counties. New cases have been identified almost every day since, with health officials noting more than 1,000 cases by the end of March.
Daily case counts have fluctuated each day as labs struggled to deal with intermittent shortages of chemicals needed to run coronavirus tests. Daily case counts have exceeded 100 cases a day every day in April.
Hospitals across the state are currently at 54.7% capacity, DHEC officials said. State officials have developed a plan to add about 3,000 additional beds across the state by early May. DHEC officials have also 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
- Abbeville: 1
- Anderson: 3
- Beaufort: 7
- Berkeley: 3
- Charleston: 7
- Chester: 2
- Chesterfield: 1
- Clarendon: 1
- Colleton: 3
- Dillon: 2
- Dorchester: 5
- Edgefield: 1
- Florence: 5
- Greenville: 27
- Greenwood: 1
- Hampton: 1
- Lee: 1
- Lancaster: 1
- Lexington: 10
- Newberry: 1
- Richland: 13
- Saluda: 1
- Spartanburg: 1
- Sumter: 5
- Williamsburg: 2
This story was originally published April 15, 2020 at 2:32 PM.
