No new coronavirus deaths reported in SC; total case count hits 8,500
For the first time in more than seven weeks, South Carolina health officials announced no new daily deaths in individuals with COVID-19 on Saturday.
That’s the first time that’s happened since March 25, and it keeps the state’s total during the coronavirus pandemic at 380.
The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control did announce confirmed cases have surpassed 8,500, with 276 new cases. That brings the state’s total to 8,661 since the first cases were reported March 6.
Greenville County, which became the second county in the state to surpass 1,000 total cases on Friday, reported the biggest increase in Saturday’s number with 38 new confirmed cases. Lee County added 32 more and surpassed Clarendon County as the state’s hardest hit region by cases per capita — there has been roughly 939 cases out of every 100,000 residents.
Richland County continues to lead the state in total cases at 1,222, with 18 announced Saturday.
DHEC also announced that 10,715 tests for COVID-19 were conducted in the last day. According to data from the COVID Tracking Project, that is the highest number of tests in a day in more than a month.
As of Friday the recovery rate in South Carolina for COVID-19 was 84%, and 80% of those who tests positive have not reported being hospitalized at the time of their positive test.
DHEC has estimated that there are tens of thousands of unconfirmed positive cases across the Palmetto State. On Saturday, the agency updated its figures to project that there are actually more than 61,000 coronavirus cases across the state, with 53,000 or so untested.
After the number of new confirmed cases in a week peaked at 1,291 from April 5 to 11, the new case total has fallen slightly but stayed above 1,000 per week. From May 10 to 16, DHEC announced 1,055 new cases, though that number may be adjusted as cases are determined to be among out-of-state residents.
By the end of May DHEC projects the weekly number of COVID-19 cases will fall to 900, for a total of 10,493 confirmed cases.
While the state’s epidemic curve of new cases per day is flattening, some experts fear a second wave of cases is possible as businesses and restaurants reopen.
Gov. Henry McMaster recently lifted restrictions on close-contact businesses including hair salons, tattoo parlors, nail salons, gyms and pools starting Monday. Restaurants have been allowed to open for limited dine-in services for a week now, and McMaster has also lifted restrictions on boating, short-term rentals, beaches and visitors to the state.
McMaster has also canceled his mandatory work-or-home order.
Experts say that in order to curb the spread of the virus as these reopenings occur, South Carolina needs to increase testing and bulk up contact tracing staff. To that end DHEC officials have vowed to nearly double the amount of testing by the end of May; their eventual goal is to test 2% of the state’s population — roughly 110,000 residents — each month.
As of Saturday DHEC is reporting 120,331 tests run by public and private labs. Of that total, more than 60,000 have been reported in May, putting the state on track to meet its 2% goal.
State health officials have also hired about 380 new contact tracers and contracted with private companies for 1,400 more.
In addition McMaster and other officials continue to recommend residents practice social distancing and other safety measures as the economy and society begin to reopen. However, both McMaster and state epidemiologist Linda Bell have expressed concerns about residents not following those recommendations.
This story was originally published May 16, 2020 at 5:40 PM.
