DHEC: SC has a week with less than 1,000 daily COVID-19 cases but percent still high
South Carolina health officials reported fewer than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases for the seventh day in a row Saturday, though the percentage of tests coming back positive continues to stay above levels officials say are necessary to control its spread throughout the state.
The Department of Health and Environmental Control announced 825 new confirmed cases Saturday, putting the state’s total since the coronavirus pandemic began in March at 109,962.
With 6,007 specimens tested, the percentage of positive tests Saturday was 13.7% — well above the 5% the World Health Organization suggests should be the standard before countries consider reopening and the goal cited by Linda Bell, DHEC’s state epidemiologist.
During a conference call with reporters on Friday, Bell said the number of new cases has been slowly trending downward and to continue that trend, “we cannot let up.”
She called for “aggressive measure to rein in the virus.”
DHEC also reported 33 new confirmed deaths, bringing the total death toll to 2,372.
Which counties were affected?
Charleston County led the way with 90 new cases.
In the Midlands, Richland County had 87 new cases, while Lexington County logged 30.
Residents of the following counties died after contracting the virus: Aiken (3), Anderson (4), Berkeley (1), Charleston (4), Cherokee (1), Dorchester (1), Florence (1), Georgetown (2), Greenwood (3), Horry (1), Lancaster (2), Laurens (1), Lexington (1), Orangeburg (3), Richland (2), Spartanburg (1) and York (2).
Are all cases accounted for?
State health officials estimate that around 86% of South Carolinians who contract the virus don’t get tested.
As of Saturday, DHEC estimated that 748,082 people in all have likely contracted COVID-19 since March.
DHEC has also been recording probable cases and probable deaths.
A probable case is someone who has not received a lab test results but has virus symptoms or a positive antibody test.
A probable death is someone who has not gotten a lab test but whose death certificate lists COVID-19 as a cause of death or a contributing factor.
On Saturday, state health officials reported 68 new probable cases and 2 new probable deaths. That brings the total number of probable cases up to 1,333 and total probable deaths to 121.
DHEC officials have also said the recent slow down in testing could mean that more people with the coronavirus have gone untested and undiagnosed.
How are hospitals being impacted?
As of Saturday, the state reported 1,025 patients in South Carolina hospitals have coronavirus, including 258 patients in intensive care and 155 patients on ventilators.
In all, 81.44% of in-patient beds are occupied in S.C. hospitals, including 76.5% of the beds in intensive care units.
The number of coronavirus patients hospitalized at one time peaked at more than 1,700 on July 23, and the state has seen small decreases in those daily numbers since.
Some data since late July was unavailable as DHEC transitioned its reporting system from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the Department of Health and Human Services, as requested by the federal government. The agency said the new system will give more precise information about COVID-19-related hospital conditions.
How is COVID-19 trending in SC?
The number of daily new cases reported in South Carolina hit a high of 2,340 on July 18.
In the month since, totals have steadily dropped.
Two weeks ago, case counts ranged from just above 1,000 to more than 1,300.
This week, the number of new cases has yet to crack 1,000, although health officials warn that may be because of lower rates of testing.
“We still need that percent positive to be significantly lower, and we recognize that we really do want to test a great deal more individuals, because we understand that there are still many many asymptomatic people in the population that may not be aware they are affected,” Bell said. “So, that does not change our goal to significantly ramp up testing.”
On Saturday, 13.7% of tests reported were positive, which officials said is high.
Over the past two weeks, the trend of percentage of tests coming back positive has stayed flat, but it has declined from July, when the percentage hovered around 20%.
Health officials want to see decreasing positive percent and cases for 14 days, ideally getting below 5%, Bell said.
Nationally, about 8.86% of tests turn up positive, according to the CDC.
In all, 975,875 tests have been completed in South Carolina since March.
Bell said Friday that DHEC is planning to significantly expand the testing capacity of its own labs in the coming weeks and is evaluating a new saliva-based testing method developed by Yale University that has been approved by the FDA and is “open source,” meaning the method is publicly available.
This story was originally published August 22, 2020 at 12:26 PM.