SC has less than 1,000 new COVID cases for 7 straight days. It last happened in July

South Carolina reported fewer than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases for the seventh straight day on Friday, the first time that’s happened since July.

The Palmetto State’s downward trend of cases shows the spread of the virus has slowed significantly compared to months earlier. Friday also marked the 13th time over the past two weeks that fewer than 1,000 cases were reported, according to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.

State health officials reported 825 new cases on Friday, with at least 265 listed as “probable” rather than confirmed. That brings the state’s total COVID-19 case count to more than 902,000.

The state conducted 21,853 tests for Friday’s data, with 5.6% coming back positive. DHEC says all cases reported came from testing completed two days earlier.

DHEC also reported nine deaths Friday, bringing the death toll to 13,841 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.

Over the past few weeks, the number of tests conducted have also declined, resulting in fewer positive cases, though the positivity rate of those tests have also seen a decrease.

About 43% of the new cases reported were people aged 30 and under.

Children 10 and younger made up 13.1% of the new cases, while 14.2% 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 438 deaths — 0.0185% of all cases — as of Nov. 5 from “breakthrough” cases, meaning the person was fully vaccinated. The majority of deaths — 60% — are people ages 71 and up. About 65% of those who died had comorbid conditions. And 0.725% of all fully vaccinated people have been infected, while nearly 0.057% 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 55.3%, 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.