SC reports fewer than 1,000 new daily COVID-19 cases for two weeks

South Carolina added 875 new COVID-19 cases and 16 deaths to its toll on Friday. It was the most daily cases reported since Oct. 28, when the state had 889 new cases.

For two straight weeks the state Department of Health and Environmental Control has reported fewer than 1,000 daily cases, a reduction in cases that hadn’t occurred since July when case numbers were at the lowest since the pandemic began.

The Palmetto State’s downward trend of cases shows the spread of the virus has slowed significantly compared to months earlier. Only once over the past three weeks has the state reported more than 1,000 new daily cases.

DHEC also reported 697 total COVID cases and 44 deaths on Thursday, data which was delayed because of the Veterans Day holiday.

The 60 added deaths for the two days bring the state’s COVID-19 toll to 13,983. About 1,000 people have died of COVID-19 in South Carolina over the past month alone.

Of the 875 new cases reported for Friday, at least 270 were listed as “probable” rather than confirmed. That brings the state’s total COVID-19 case count to nearly 907,000 since March 2020.

The state conducted 24,746 tests for Friday’s data, with 4% coming back positive. The state health department said cases reported came from testing completed two days earlier.

Over the past month, the number of tests conducted have also declined, resulting in fewer positive cases, though the positivity rate of those tests have also decreased.

About 46% of the new cases reported Friday were people age 30 and under.

Children 10 and younger made up 16.1% of the new cases, while 16.5% of the cases were diagnosed in people between the ages of 11-20.

At the earlier height of the pandemic between December 2019 and February 2020, 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 471 deaths — 0.0197% of all cases — as of Nov. 12 from “breakthrough” cases, meaning the person was fully vaccinated. The majority of deaths — 60% — are people age 71 and up. About 65% of those who died had comorbid conditions. And 0.775% of all fully vaccinated people have been infected, while nearly 0.058% 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 55.7%, among the lowest in the country.

Andrew Caplan

The State

803-771-8390

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.