South Carolina reports 739 new COVID-19 cases, DHEC adds 15,000 delayed test results
South Carolina added 739 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 to its total count Tuesday, along with 30 more confirmed deaths related to the virus, health officials announced.
That puts the total number of confirmed cases since March at 137,406 and the total number of confirmed deaths at 3,067.
The Department of Health and Environmental Control also announced Tuesday that it was adding around 15,000 backlogged test results to its totals after they were reported by Augusta University Healthcare in Georgia on Monday.
Those 15,000 tests results cover a time period stretching from March 18 through Sept. 17, and approximately 2,000 were positive. Those positive cases are not all still active and have now been distributed in DHEC’s data by the day each result was reported by the lab to Augusta University Healthcare.
With those updated figures, DHEC has now recorded 11 days in a row of fewer than 1,000 new cases for South Carolina.
Officials reported 5,160 individual test results Tuesday, putting the percentage of tests returning positive at 14.3%. That’s a decline from the state’s high points in July, when the percentage consistently topped 20%, but it is still above the 5% mark health experts, including DHEC state epidemiologist Linda Bell, have cited as a goal.
Which counties were affected?
Neighboring Richland and Lexington counties each added 80 new cases of the novel coronavirus Tuesday, accounting for roughly one of every five new cases. Richland County in particular has seen a bump in case counts since college students first started returning to campus in late August.
The following counties saw residents die after contracting COVID-19: Aiken (1), Anderson (2), Berkeley (1), Charleston (1), Cherokee (1), Florence (1), Greenville (3), Greenwood (1), Horry (1), Jasper (1), Kershaw (1), Laurens (2), Marion (1), Oconee (1), Pickens (2), Richland (3), Spartanburg (3), Williamsburg (2) and York (2).
Of those who died, 26 were elderly, defined by DHEC as 65 years or older, while four were middle-aged, defined as between 35 and 64 years old.
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.
The 7-day moving average of new cases rose again in late August and early September, but it has since begun to dip again. Before Tuesday’s added results, DHEC had reported two full weeks of fewer than 1,000 new cases per day, but that stretch is now currently 11 days.
Thus far, South Carolina has seemingly been able to avoid the spike in cases following the Labor Day weekend that DHEC and other health experts had warned was possible as residents planned vacations to crowded beaches and students returned to schools. The state had previously seen an 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.
It has now been more than two weeks since Labor Day and the daily case count has continued to decline. State health officials have credited the overall decline since July 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 capacity, but demand has slowed as “testing fatigue” sets in. The Department of Health and Human Services deployed a federal “surge testing team” that is working to set up more testing sites and opportunities in the Columbia area over the next several weeks.
To account for lower test totals, officials have highlighted the importance of percentage of tests run that come back positive. Nationally, about 8.3% of tests have turned up positive, according to the CDC.
In South Carolina, that percentage has been higher since March, at 15.2%. With Tuesday’s results, the seven-day rolling average dropped to 11.9%, the lowest it has been since early June.
In all, 1,271,177 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 30 new probable cases and three new probable deaths. That puts the total number of probable cases at 3,383 and total probable deaths at 176.
How are hospitals being impacted?
As of Tuesday, the state reported 768 patients in South Carolina hospitals have the novel coronavirus, including 187 in intensive care and 105 on ventilators. The number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized at one time peaked at 1,723 on July 23.
In all, 77% of inpatient beds in S.C. hospitals are currently occupied, including 71.64% of ICU beds.
This story was originally published September 22, 2020 at 3:36 PM.
