South Carolina has ‘uncontrolled spread’ of COVID-19, data show. How bad is it?
The coronavirus is spreading “uncontrolled” in South Carolina, a report shows.
A map created by public health and crisis experts uses COVID-19 data and White House reopening criteria to track each state’s progress in controlling the spread of the virus based on several measures. It then categorizes them into different levels of spread based on those trends.
South Carolina falls in the “bruised red” color, indicating “uncontrolled spread” — the highest level.
The report uses seven factors to measure the spread: the 14-day trend in cases, influenza-like illnesses, ICU capacity, hospital capacity, percent of testing goals reached, the percent of positive tests and new cases per million each day.
The state’s “weakest measure” determines its category: bruised red, red for trending poorly, yellow for making progress or green for trending better.
South Carolina’s 14-day trend in COVID-19 cases, its number of new cases per million per day and its percentage of tests coming back positive landed it in the “bruised red” category.
The state has had a 30% increase in reported cases over the past 14 days, the data show. Anything above 25% the report considers “bruised red.”
It’s also reported 362 new cases per million per day, according to the report, putting it behind only Florida, Arizona and Louisiana in that category.
South Carolina’s positive test rate is at 18.1% over the past week, the data show.
The percentage, which the report bases on data from the COVID Tracking Project, is lower than what the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control has reported.
It’s been above 20% every day but one over the last seven days — reaching 22.2% Saturday and Sunday and 17.9% Friday, DHEC data show.
Either way, the number is significantly higher than what the rest of the country is seeing. About 8.7% of tests come back positive nationally, The State reports. South Carolina has been seeing an increase in positive tests recently. In May, the percentage of positive tests ranged from 2% to 4% on average.
The state fared better in some categories. Data on hospital capacity wasn’t available in the report Wednesday morning. But DHEC shows about 74% of hospital beds were occupied as of Tuesday, which would put South Carolina in yellow for that category.
But 1,550 South Carolinians were hospitalized with COVID-19 on Tuesday, a record.
The state fell into the green category in a couple measures. The report shows it is meeting 133% of its testing goals and that influenza-like illnesses are minimal.
Eighteen other states, including much of the Southeast, were in the “bruised red” category along with South Carolina. Only four — New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Maine — were in the green.
Once hot spots for the coronavirus pandemic, many northeastern states are now seeing some of the lowest cases and infection rates in the country. In turn, southern states, including South Carolina, have seen their cases skyrocket and are emerging as new hot spots for the outbreak.
This story was originally published July 15, 2020 at 1:02 PM.
