COVID-19 activity level drops in Lexington County, DHEC data shows
There is good news for Lexington County.
The activity rate for COVID-19 has decreased over the past two weeks, according to data from the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.
As of Monday, Lexington County’s coronavirus level has gone from high to medium, DHEC data shows.
Lexington is one of seven counties across the state that DHEC listed at medium disease activity, and the only one in the Midlands. Oconee, Pickens, Greenville, Spartanburg, Marion, and Horry are the other counties where the COVID-19 activity is at a medium level.
No South Carolina county has a low level of coronavirus activity.
Lexington County does not have a countywide ordinance requiring people to wear masks to reduce the spread of COVID-19. But several municipalities in the county — including Lexington, West Columbia, and Cayce — have adopted face covering mandates.
Three factors determine a county’s activity level — incidence rate (per 100,000), trend in incidence rate, and percent positive. Lexington County had a medium incidence rate, low trend rate and high percent positive to balance out at an overall medium activity level, according to DHEC.
The incidence rate is the number of new cases in the prior two weeks (Aug. 3-16), and Lexington’s figure of 174.6 per 100,000 people was just below the High threshold that starts at 200.
Because Lexington’s incidence rate decreased, it trended at low, according to DHEC.
The one area where Lexington County registered at a high rate was percent positive. Its 15.4% of confirmed cases of COVID-19 among the tests reported over the two weeks exceeded the 10% threshold.
Through Wednesday, there were 107,274 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 2,248 deaths in South Carolina, health officials said. Lexington County has reported 5,199 positive tests and 119 coronavirus-related deaths, according to DHEC.
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This story was originally published August 19, 2020 at 2:08 PM.
