SC reports 2,070 COVID-19 cases, 45 deaths Friday
After four days with 1,520 or fewer new COVID-19 cases, state health officials Friday reported 2,070 confirmed cases and 45 deaths from the virus.
Nearly 9% of the 37,536 tests reported Friday came back positive, according to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.
DHEC calculates the positivity rate by taking the total number of positive viral tests and dividing it by the total number of tests taken. The number of cases is lower than the number of positive tests because some people take multiple tests.
COVID-19 hospitalizations, which have declined markedly since reaching record highs in mid-January, dropped again Friday to 1,375, 44% lower than their peak of 2,466 a month ago.
Since March of last year, the state has reported 421,876 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 7,057 deaths from the virus.
South Carolina counts an additional 58,281 cases, including 481 Friday, as probable positives, and another 837 deaths, including 16 Friday, 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.
The state has reported a cumulative total of 480,157 probable and confirmed COVID-19 cases and 7,894 probable and confirmed deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
Vaccines distributed
As of Friday, South Carolina had received 532,350 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine and 438,200 doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine.
The agency reported Friday that 339,758 first doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 134,414 first doses of the Moderna vaccine had been administered so far. Another 103,589 second doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 30,737 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, and all people age 65 and older are currently eligible to receive vaccinations.
In addition to the 608,000 first and second vaccine doses that have been administered, South Carolinians have scheduled another 443,000 vaccination appointments, 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.