SC adds nearly 800 more coronavirus cases heading into weekend
South Carolina added nearly 800 new cases of COVID-19 to its total Friday, along with 18 more deaths related to the virus.
Officials with the Department of Health and Environmental Control reported a daily case count of 784, putting the state’s total at 161,235 since the first cases were reported in March. The state’s death toll of individuals who had tested positive for the virus, raising the state’s total to 3,545.
DHEC’s Friday report also included 6,398 individual test results, putting the percentage of positive tests at 12.3%. A total of 1,838,134 tests have now been performed in the state since March.
The average rate of positive tests has declined from the state’s high points in July, when it consistently topped 20%, but it is still well above the 5% mark that health experts, including DHEC state epidemiologist Linda Bell, have cited as a goal.
“We continue to have relatively higher levels of disease transmission in our community. Recently, we have seen a slight downward trend in cases, and we’ve seen a bit of a plateau,” Bell said during a conference call with reporters last Friday. “But at the same time, we continue to see a percent positive in the population that is much higher than we’d like to see, and the consequences of ongoing disease transmission are that individuals will become sick. Many of those individuals will require hospitalization.”
Officials are now recommending anyone who is “out and about” in the community or not able to wear a facial covering and practice social distancing be tested at least once a month, in order to track and curb the spread of asymptomatic cases.
Which counties were affected?
Many of Friday’s new cases came from the Upstate region, as Greenville County led the state in new cases with 129, while Spartanburg County was second with 75.
In the Midlands, Richland County reported 67 new cases, while neighboring Lexington County had 60.
The deaths reported Friday occurred among individuals from Anderson (1), Barnwell (1), Beaufort (1), Colleton (1), Florence (1), Georgetown (2), Greenville (3), Lexington (2), Marion (1), Oconee (1), Pickens (1), Spartanburg (1) and York (2).
Three of those who died were middle aged, defined by DHEC as between 35 and 64 years old. The remaining 15 were elderly, defined as 65 years or older.
How is COVID-19 trending in SC?
On Friday, DHEC launched a new dashboard aimed at giving residents a quick look at how seven sets of data related to the pandemic are trending in South Carolina:
- Rate of cases per 100,000
- Rate of tests per 100,000
- Percentage of positive tests
- Deaths by date
- Hospitalizations
- ICU hospitalizations
- COVID-19 patients
While the rate of cases and percentage of positive tests has trended slightly up over the previous 30 days, though they are both short of the highs the state saw in July — the number of daily new cases reported in South Carolina hit a high of 2,343 on July 18, while the seven-day moving average of the percentage of positive tests peaked at 21.2% on July 14.
The rate of testing, meanwhile, has plateaued over the past month or more, as DHEC went from reporting more than 10,000 tests per day regularly in the middle of summer to never hitting that standard throughout September and October.
Officials have said there has not been a reduction in testing capacity, but demand has slowed as “testing fatigue” sets in.
The number of deaths by date has declined slightly, though there is often a delay in reporting as officials determine whether it should be classified as a COVID-19 related death.
Meanwhile, the number of hospitalizations has stayed relatively steady in the past month, with the rate of ICU hospitalizations increasing slightly and the number of patients on ventilators has decreased.
Are all cases accounted for?
State health officials estimated in the past that around 86% of South Carolinians who contract the virus didn’t get tested, and global experts have said official case counts have likely under-counted the number of cases.
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, health officials reported 83 new probable cases and five new probable deaths from COVID-19. That puts the total number of probable cases at 7,314 and total probable deaths at 232.
How are hospitals being impacted?
As of Friday, DHEC reported that 718 patients were hospitalized with coronavirus-related symptoms, or 8.47% of all patients currently in the hospital. The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 at one time in the state peaked at 1,723 on July 23.
Some have more serious conditions than others; 191 COVID-19 patients are in intensive care, and 96 are on ventilators.
Health officials said COVID-19 can cause mild to severe illness. Older adults and people who have serious underlying medical conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, and/or chronic lung diseases, are at a higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19, according to DHEC.
This story was originally published October 23, 2020 at 2:29 PM.
