South Carolina reaches new record for daily coronavirus cases ahead of New Year’s Eve

South Carolina reached a new all-time high for daily coronavirus cases on Friday, reaching nearly 9,000 new cases, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.

The new cases surpassed the previous high set nearly one full year ago on Jan. 6 of 7,686 cases and come as families and friends plan to gather for New Year’s Eve.

Friday also marks the 22th time throughout December that the state has had more than 1,000 new daily cases after previously making it throughout November without hitting the mark once.

In the days prior to Thanksgiving, the state’s average was under 600 new cases per day, which included a low of 259 cases on Nov. 24, and no days over 1,000 cases. Since then, there has been an increase of about 3,100 new cases per day.

The state has added nearly 27,000 new cases to its total over the past week alone.

Of the 8,882 new cases reported Friday, at least 2,563 were listed as “probable” rather than confirmed. That brings the state’s total COVID-19 case count to more than 975,000 since March 2020. The state health department says cases reported come from testing completed two days earlier.

DHEC also added 19 new deaths statewide to bring the death toll to 14,636. About 400 people have died of COVID-19 in South Carolina over the past month, the lowest monthly total since July.

Agency officials are urging people to be cautious as they prepare to ring in the new year around friends and family.

“If we don’t take actions now, New Year’s Eve celebrations could prove to be devastating, particularly for those who have not been maximally vaccinated,” said Brannon Traxler, the DHEC Public Health Director. “In the era of the Omicron variant, we are seeing the virus spread so rapidly that case counts are skyrocketing and hospital admissions due to the disease are increasing. This is all the more reason why it is so important to get maximally vaccinated against COVID-19.”

The state conducted 29,942 tests for Friday’s data, with 25.6% coming back positive.

About 40.7% of the new cases reported were people age 30 and under. Children 10 and younger made up nearly 7.5% of the new cases, while almost 10.5% of the cases were diagnosed in people between the ages of 11-20. People between the ages of 21 and 30 made up the bulk of the new cases, accounting for 22.8% of Friday’s total.

At the earlier height of the pandemic between December 2019 and February 2020, only 5.8% of positive cases were kids 10 and under.

There have been 532 deaths — 0.0214% of all cases — as of Dec. 17 from “breakthrough” cases, meaning an infected person is fully vaccinated with at least two doses. The majority of deaths — 59% — are people age 71 and up. About 61% of those who died had comorbid conditions. An estimated 0.9607% of all fully vaccinated people have been infected, while nearly 0.0642% 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 the country’s lowest rates of full vaccination status — people with two vaccine shots — among its eligible population, at an estimated 51.8%.

This story was originally published December 31, 2021 at 11:19 AM.

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.