Daily COVID cases top 3,000 as delta continues to surge in South Carolina

COVID-19 cases surpassed 3,000 for the first time since February as numbers continue to trudge upward. South Carolina recorded 3,236 cases on Wednesday, according to data released Friday by the state Department of Health and Environmental Control. South Carolina only surpassed 2,000 cases last week.

There were 2,535 new confirmed cases and 701 probable cases. Eight new confirmed deaths and three probable deaths from COVID also were reported.

Out of 20,182 COVID tests conducted, 16.3% came back positive, down about two-and-a-half percentage points from Tuesday. This percentage still indicates a very high risk of transmission, according to CDC indicators. Percent positive refers to the number of positive COVID-19 tests in relation to all COVID-19 tests conducted.

The highly contagious delta variant is likely responsible for the majority of COVID-19 cases in South Carolina, according to state health officials. The exact number of delta cases is unknown because only a fraction of confirmed cases undergo genome sequencing, the process used to determine the variant.

There have been more than 518,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Carolina since the start of the pandemic and more than 634,000 cases in all. DHEC provides updated COVID-19 data Monday through Friday at 1 p.m.

This story was originally published August 6, 2021 at 2:01 PM.