SC adds nearly 1,000 new cases, 53 deaths related to COVID-19
South Carolina reported 951 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Friday, along with 53 additional confirmed deaths, the state’s highest daily death toll this month.
Since the novel coronavirus pandemic first reached South Carolina in March, the Department of Health and Environmental Control has recorded 126,792 confirmed cases and 2,877 deaths related to the virus.
Friday marked the highest daily case count DHEC has reported this week and broke a streak of three consecutive days with fewer than 500 cases announced, the first time that had happened since June 2-4.
With 6,389 individual test results reported, DHEC calculated a total of 14.9% of tests coming back positive, compared to a two-month low of 6% the day before.
The World Health Organization suggests 5% should be the standard before countries consider reopening, and DHEC state epidemiologist Linda Bell has cited the same percentage as a goal. Through much of July, though, that figure regularly surpassed 20% in South Carolina, and it stayed above 14% every calendar week in August. For this calendar week, it is currently at 13.8%.
Which counties were affected?
A day after reporting just two new cases in Greenville County, DHEC recorded 152 new cases in the state’s most populous county Friday, highest on the day.
In the Midlands, Richland County has seen an uptick in cases recently coinciding with the return of thousands of college students to the University of South Carolina and other campuses. On Friday, it added 111 new cases, second most in the state.
Neighboring Lexington County saw 58 new confirmed cases, while Spartanburg County recorded 71 more in the Upstate.
Residents from the following counties died after contracting the virus: Aiken (3), Anderson (6), Bamberg (1), Charleston (3), Cherokee (1), Chesterfield (1), Clarendon (1), Darlington (1), Dorchester (2), Fairfield (2), Florence (1), Greenville (2), Greenwood (4), Kershaw (1), Lexington (2), Marion (1), Oconee (3), Orangeburg (3), Pickens (1), Richland (1), Saluda (1), Spartanburg (6), Sumter (4), Union (1) and York (1).
Of those who died, nine were middle-aged, defined by DHEC as 35 to 64 years old. The rest were elderly, defined as being 65 or older.
How is COVID-19 trending in SC?
The number of daily new cases reported in South Carolina hit a high of 2,343 on July 18. In the month after, totals slowly dropped, including a stretch of 13 days in a row under 1,000 towards the end of August. Before Friday, there was a stretch of five days with fewer than 750 new cases each.
Ahead of the Labor Day weekend, however, DHEC and other health experts warned of a possible spike in cases as residents take vacations to crowded beaches and students return to schools. The state saw a similar increase in May after Memorial Day, going from about 100 to 300 cases per day to more than 1,000, and to a lesser extent in July after Independence Day, going from 1,600 to 1,900.
Such a spike wouldn’t show up in the data immediately, however, as patients could not develop symptoms for as many as two weeks.
State health officials have credited the recent decline in part to a signficant slowdown in virus activity in areas with face mask requirements and where residents are practicing social distancing.
But they have also said lower testing totals have played a role as well. After regularly reported more than 10,000 tests a day in July, DHEC has not recorded that many throughout August and September and bottomed out at under 3,000 tests on multiple occasions. Officials have said there has not been a reduction in testing opportunities or capacity, but demand has slowed as “testing fatigue” sets in.
To account for lowered test totals, officials have highlighted the importance of percentage of tests run that come back positive. Nationally, about 8.6% of tests turn up positive, according to the CDC. In South Carolina, that figure has been 15.2% since March.
In all, 1,110,639 tests have been completed in South Carolina since March, including more than 1 million viral tests and 65,000 antibody tests, which can tell if an individual has been exposed to the virus but cannot confirm an active infection.
Are all cases accounted for?
State health officials estimate that around 86% of South Carolinians who contract the virus don’t get tested.
DHEC has also been recording probable cases and probable deaths. A probable case is someone who has not received a lab test result 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 Friday, state health officials reported 16 new probable cases and one new probable deaths. That puts the total number of probable cases at 2,254 and total probable deaths at 151.
How are hospitals being impacted?
As of Thursday, the state reported 806 patients in South Carolina hospitals have the novel coronavirus, including 220 in intensive care and 131 on ventilators. The number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized at one time peaked at 1,723 on July 23.
In all, 82.29% of in-patient beds in S.C. hospitals are currently occupied, including 75.05% of ICU beds.
This story was originally published September 11, 2020 at 2:54 PM.
