DHEC: SC has more than 2 weeks with under 1,000 daily virus cases, lower positive rate
For more than two consecutive weeks, South Carolina health officials have recorded fewer than 1,000 new cases of COVID-19 per day, while the Department of Health and Environmental Control announced 639 confirmed cases Saturday.
That would mark the state’s longest such stretch since it first recorded more than 1,000 new cases in mid-June. South Carolina appeared to reach the two-week mark earlier this week, but DHEC reported a backlog of approximately 15,000 test results Tuesday and retroactively assigned the case figures to the proper dates.
DHEC announced 27 more confirmed deaths related to the virus Saturday as well. That puts the total number of confirmed cases since March at 141,338 and the total number of confirmed deaths at 3,141.
Amid a surge in free testing opportunities in the Columbia area coordinated by a federal response team, DHEC reported 6,451 individual test results Saturday, putting the percentage of tests returning positive at 9.9%. The rolling seven-day average of positive tests has declined to 10.3%, the first time it has been below 11% since mid-June.
The average rate of positive tests continues to decline from the state’s high points in July, when it consistently topped 20%, but it is still above the 5% mark that health experts, including DHEC state epidemiologist Linda Bell, have cited as a goal.
Officials have also pushed to increase testing totals, recommending anyone who is “out and about” in the community or not able to wear a face covering and practice social distancing be tested at least once a month.
Which counties were affected?
Richland County has seen a bump in case counts since college students first started returning to campus in late August and added 83 new cases Saturday, the most in the state.
Greenville County reported the second largest batch of new cases Saturday, adding 72 to its total.
Lexington County added 58 and Anderson County added 44.
Here are the numbers of COVID-19 deaths by county in the latest report: Anderson (3), Beaufort (1), Cherokee (1), Chesterfield (1), Darlington (1), Dorchester (2), Edgefield (1), Fairfield (1), Florence (2), Lexington (1), Newberry (3), Richland (4), Spartanburg (1) and York (5).
All who died were elderly, meaning 65 or over, aside from two who were described as middle-aged, or 35-64.
How is COVID-19 trending in SC?
The number of daily new cases reported in South Carolina hit a high of 2,343 on July 18. In the month after, totals slowly dropped, including a stretch of 13 consecutive days when case counts were under 1,000.
The seven-day moving average of new cases rose again slightly in late August and early September, but it has since begun to dip again. With Saturday’s totals, it is now below 700 for the first time since mid-June.
DHEC and other health experts had warned of a possible spike in cases after the Labor Day holiday as residents planned vacations to crowded beaches and students returned to schools. The state had previously seen an increase in May after Memorial Day, going from about 100 to 300 cases per day to more than 1,000; and to a lesser extent in July after Independence Day, going from 1,600 to 1,900.
Such a spike would take time to materialize, however, as symptoms can take up to two weeks to develop and reporting can take several days.
Still, state health officials have credited the overall decline in cases since July in part to a significant slowdown in virus activity in areas with face mask requirements and where residents are practicing social distancing. In particular, DHEC data has shown that the areas that implemented mask ordinances the earliest have seen the largest overall declines.
But health officials have also said lower testing totals have played a role as well. After regularly reporting more than 10,000 tests a day in July, DHEC has not recorded that many throughout August and September and bottomed out at under 3,000 tests reported in a day on multiple occasions.
Officials have said there has been no reduction in testing capacity, but demand has slowed as “testing fatigue” sets in. The Department of Health and Human Services deployed a federal “surge testing team” that has set up free testing sites and opportunities in the Columbia area over the next several weeks.
To account for lower test totals, officials have highlighted the importance of percentage of tests run that come back positive. Nationally, about 8.3% of tests have turned up positive, according to the CDC.
In South Carolina, that percentage has been higher since March, at 15%. In all, 1,352,583 tests have been completed in the state since March.
Are all cases accounted for?
State health officials have estimated that around 86% of South Carolinians who contract the virus don’t get tested.
DHEC also has been recording probable cases and probable deaths. A probable case is someone who has not received a lab test result but has virus symptoms or a positive antibody test. A probable death is someone who has not gotten a lab test but whose death certificate lists COVID-19 as a cause of death or a contributing factor.
On Saturday state health officials reported 22 new probable cases and no new probable deaths. That puts the total number of probable cases at 3,935 and total probable deaths at 182.
How are hospitals being impacted?
As of Saturday, the state reported 727 patients in South Carolina hospitals have the novel coronavirus, including 186 in intensive care and 99 on ventilators. The number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized at one time peaked at 1,723 on July 23.
In all, 80.73% of inpatient beds in S.C. hospitals are currently occupied, including 74.16% of ICU beds.
This story was originally published September 26, 2020 at 1:07 PM with the headline "DHEC: SC has more than 2 weeks with under 1,000 daily virus cases, lower positive rate."