3 free COVID-19 testing clinics set for Beaufort, Jasper counties
Three new coronavirus testing clinics have been scheduled in Beaufort and Jasper counties over the next few weeks.
All the events are free, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control:
A mobile testing clinic from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday at the St. Helena Medical Center. Beaufort Jasper Hampton Comprehensive Health Services is hosting the event.
A “pop-up” clinic on July 25 at the Chelsea Medical Center in Okatie scheduled for 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. BJHCHS is organizing the clinic.
A drive-thru testing event on July 31 from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Second Euhaw Baptist Church in Ridgeland. Coastal Carolina Hospital is listed as the clinic’s provider.
Three other mobile clinics were previously scheduled:
A pop-up testing event from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. Wednesday at Bluffton High School.
A mobile clinic on July 29 from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Battery Creek High School in Beaufort.
A testing site at Hilton Head High School on Aug. 5 from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m.
DHEC has reported a surge of coronavirus infections around the Palmetto State in recent weeks. As of Monday, over 71,000 people in South Carolina have tested positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic began and more than 1,100 people have died, DHEC data show.
New coronavirus cases announced statewide in the past three weeks have accounted for nearly 50% of all cases since March.
Beaufort County, meanwhile, logged a record-breaking daily high of newly confirmed cases July 16, with 108 infections. The seven-day average on July 16 was 80 new cases every 24 hours in the county.
“We’re actually in the most dangerous situation now,” said Dr. Kathleen Cartmell, a public health professor at Clemson University, in an interview last week. “Now’s not the time to start feeling comfortable.”
