SC reports fewer than 1,000 COVID-19 cases for 12th time in under two weeks

South Carolina continued its downward trend of COVID-19 cases Thursday, marking fewer than 1,000 new cases on 12 of the past 13 days, according to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.

The state reported 727 new cases on Thursday, with at least 307 listed as “probable” rather than confirmed. That brings the state’s total COVID-19 case count to more than 900,000.

The state conducted 16,839 tests for Thursday’s data, with 4.9% coming back positive. DHEC says all cases reported came from testing completed two days earlier.

DHEC also reported 34 deaths Thursday, bringing the death toll to 13,832 since the start of the pandemic last year.

More than 1,200 people have died of COVID-19 in South Carolina over the past month, though the number of deaths reported have steadily declined week by week. Greenville leads all other counties in the state with 36 deaths during the time frame.

Over the past few weeks, there has been a decline in testing, resulting in fewer positive cases, though the positivity rate of those tests has also declined.

About 40% of the new cases reported were people aged 30 and under.

Children 10 and younger made up 7.9% of the new cases, while 15.4% 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 kids 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 415 deaths — 0.017% of all cases — as of Oct. 29 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 0.72% of all fully vaccinated people have been infected, while just 0.055% 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 55.2%, 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.