South Carolina reported nearly 1,800 new COVID cases, 74 more deaths

South Carolina reported more than 1,700 new COVID-19 cases and 74 more deaths Friday, according to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.

Nearly 13,000 people as of Friday have died in South Carolina from the disease since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

DHEC said the 1,785 new cases reported Friday came from testing completed two days earlier. That brings the state’s total COVID-19 case count to more than 874,000.

Of the new cases reported, 451 were considered “probable” rather than confirmed.

The state conducted 30,318 tests, with 8% coming back positive.

Roughly 45% of the new cases reported were people ages 30 and under.

Children ages 10 and younger made up 14.6% of the new cases, while 16% of the cases were diagnosed in people between the ages of 11 and 20.

At the earlier height of the pandemic between December and February, only 5.8% of positive cases were from children 10 and under.

The highly contagious delta variant is likely responsible for the majority of new 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 to determine the variant.

There have been 328 deaths — 0.014% of all cases — as of Oct. 8 from “breakthrough” cases, meaning the person was fully vaccinated. The majority of deaths — 65% — are people ages 71 and up. About 65% of those who died had comorbid conditions. And 0.6% of all fully vaccinated people have been infected, while just 0.048% of fully vaccinated people have been hospitalized.

Health officials recommend wearing a face mask and getting the coronavirus vaccine to help limit the spread of the virus.

South Carolina’s vaccination rate is 53%, among the lowest in the country.

Andrew Caplan

The State

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Andrew Caplan is a watchdog journalist who hails from Florida. He comes to The State Media Company after winning several statewide awards for investigative work covering elected officials, as well as public and government entities. He holds a master’s degree from the University of South Florida.