With 1,554 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday, SC passes 400,000 total infections
More than 400,000 people have now tested positive for COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.
State health officials Tuesday reported 1,554 new confirmed COVID-19 cases — the fewest number of confirmed cases since late December — and 32 deaths from the virus.
Less than 9% of the 25,112 COVID-19 tests reported Tuesday came back positive, according to DHEC.
The relatively low percent positivity rate is due not to a decrease in the disease’s spread, but rather in how the state’s health agency calculates the figure.
“It is important that people understand that while percent positive appears as a smaller number under the new way of calculating the rate, COVID-19 continues to spread at an elevated level in our state,” state epidemiologist Linda Bell said in a statement announcing the change. “That smaller number is solely based on the change in the way we calculate the rate.”
Previously, DHEC had calculated the rate by dividing the number of people with positive results by the total number of people who had taken tests. Going forward, the agency will divide all positive COVID-19 tests by the total number of COVID-19 tests administered, and multiply the result by 100 to get a percentage, officials said.
DHEC’s new way of calculating the rate will allow the agency to make direct comparisons with other states and the federal government, which has always calculated percent positive by dividing positive tests by total tests taken.
COVID-19 hospitalizations, which have been declining steadily since reaching record highs in mid-January, dropped slightly to 1,832 Tuesday. The number of patients hospitalized with the coronavirus peaked at 2,466 on Jan. 13.
Since last March, the state has reported 400,472 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 6,599 deaths from the virus.
South Carolina counts an additional 47,432 cases, including 49 Tuesday, as probable positives, and another 719 deaths, including four Tuesday, as probable COVID-19 deaths.
DHEC defines a probable case as someone who has had a positive antigen test or has virus symptoms and is at high risk for infection. Probable deaths are ones where the death certificate lists COVID-19 as the cause of or a contributing factor to death, but the person was not tested for the virus.
Vaccines distributed
As of Tuesday, South Carolina had received 423,150 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine and 354,100 doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine.
The agency reported Tuesday that 254,615 first doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 109,777 first doses of the Moderna vaccine had been administered so far. Another 66,423 second doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 9,073 second doses of the Moderna vaccine also have been administered.
Administrations of the Moderna vaccine currently lag behind Pfizer administrations because until recently Moderna shots had been used exclusively to vaccinate long-term care facility residents and staff as part of a federal pharmacy partnership. In recent weeks, the Moderna vaccine, which does not have the same ultra-cold storage requirements as the Pfizer vaccine, has been shipped to pharmacies, federally qualified health centers and other providers, and its uptake is expected to increase.
Health care workers, long-term care facility residents and staff, hospital inpatients over 65 and all people age 70 and older are currently eligible to receive vaccinations. The governor said Monday he’d like to see those age 65-69 receive next preference when the pool of individuals eligible for the vaccine next expands.
In addition to the 440,000 first and second vaccine doses that have been administered, more than 382,000 people have schedule appointments to receive a shot, DHEC said.
Anyone eligible to receive a vaccine who would like to get one can use DHEC’s locator tool to find a provider with availability near you at www.scdhec.gov/vaxlocator. For those who lack internet access, DHEC recently launched a phone line — 866-365-8110 — where operators are available every day from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. to help people searching for information about vaccine providers.
State health officials advise South Carolinians to continue taking measures to mitigate spread of COVID-19 as the vaccination rollout progresses in the months ahead.
DHEC urges anyone who is symptomatic or who has been exposed to someone with COVID-19 to get tested themselves and recommends routine monthly testing for anyone who is out and about in the community, even if they are asymptomatic.
To find a testing location near you, visit DHEC’s website at scdhec.gov/covid19/covid-19-testing-locations.