New COVID cases tick upward as SC reports 800+ more infections, 23 deaths

South Carolina reported more than 800 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday along with 23 additional deaths.

Throughout November, the state Department of Health and Environmental Control has recorded fewer than 1,000 new COVID cases every day. A similar streak of lower numbers hasn’t occurred since summer, when daily case totals were around the lowest since the pandemic began.

The Palmetto State’s downward trend of cases over the past month shows the spread of the virus has slowed significantly.

The new deaths brings the statewide death toll to 14,233. More than 400 people have died of COVID-19 in South Carolina over the past month, the lowest monthly death total since August.

At least 318 of the 806 new cases reported Wednesday were listed as “probable” rather than confirmed. That brings the state’s total COVID-19 case count to more than 919,000 since March 2020.

The state conducted 10,591 tests for Wednesday’s data, with 7.4% coming back positive. The state health department said cases reported came from testing completed two days earlier.

About 37% of the new cases reported for the past five days were people age 30 and under. Children 10 and younger made up 13% of the new cases, while 9.9% 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 488 deaths — 0.0203% of all cases — as of Nov. 19 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 0.8023% of all fully vaccinated people have been infected, while nearly 0.0596% 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 has one of the lowest fully vaccination rates in the country among its eligible population with an estimated 50%.

This story was originally published December 1, 2021 at 12:10 PM.

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.