SC health officials report 701 new confirmed COVID-19 cases
South Carolina health officials reported Tuesday that 701 more people tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the total number of residents diagnosed with the virus since March to 130,917.
Department of Health and Environmental Control officials also confirmed that 22 more South Carolinians died after contracting COVID-19. In all, 2,943 people across the state have died after testing positive for the virus.
Which counties were affected?
Greenville County saw the largest increase in confirmed coronavirus cases Tuesday with 66.
In the Midlands, Richland County saw an increase of 60 confirmed cases, and Lexington County saw 54.
The following counties saw residents die after contracting COVID-19: Aiken (1), Anderson (4), Beaufort (1), Charleston (1), Dillon (1), Greenville (2), Greenwood (1), Horry (1), Lancaster (1), Orangeburg (1), Pickens (1), Richland (3) and Spartanburg (4).
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 when case counts were 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 may not develop symptoms for as many as two weeks.
State health officials have credited the recent decline in part to a significant 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 reporting 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 reported in a day 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 lower 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, 15.7% of tests turned up positive, DHEC officials reported Tuesday.
In all, 1,165,256 tests have been completed in South Carolina since March.
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 Tuesday, state health officials reported 18 new probable cases and no new probable deaths. That puts the total number of probable cases at 2,553 and total probable deaths at 155.
How are hospitals being impacted?
As of Tuesday, the state reported 745 patients in South Carolina hospitals have the novel coronavirus, including 211 in intensive care and 127 on ventilators. The number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized at one time peaked at 1,723 on July 23.
In all, 77.64% of inpatient beds in S.C. hospitals are currently occupied, including 73.17% of ICU beds.
This story was originally published September 15, 2020 at 2:37 PM.
