84 new COVID-19 cases reported in Beaufort County Wednesday, bringing the total to 2,659

Eighty-four new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Beaufort County on Wednesday, bringing the total to 2,659 since the pandemic began, according to data from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.

As of Wednesday, the Bluffton ZIP code of 29910 continued to lead the county with 723 cases.

South Carolina has recorded 74,761 cases of the novel coronavirus and 1,203 confirmed deaths since the pandemic began.

No new deaths were reported in Beaufort County Wednesday.

The Beaufort County Coroner’s Office reports ten coronavirus deaths in the county for July. The month’s death toll surpasses the record set in April of 9.

Overall, 31 people have died because of the coronavirus in the county since the pandemic started, according to Coroner’s Office data.

There were 39 confirmed deaths reported Wednesday statewide. Seven were middle aged and 32 were elderly.

Beaufort County’s seven-day average of new daily coronavirus cases was 70 Wednesday.

The highest seven-day average of 80 was recorded on July 16.

The county’s lowest seven-day average for new cases was zero on May 9.

DHEC reported all counties but five — Edgefield, Lancaster, Malboro, Cherokee and Oconee — had 301 cases or more per 100,000 people reported between July 7 and July 20.

The state agency also reported that Beaufort was seeing an increase in incidence rates for the past two weeks compared to the previous two-week period. Counties that saw a stable or decreasing rate included Charleston, Marion, Horry, Dillon, Lancaster, Laurens, Pickens and Oconee.

Nineteen percent of 8,575 COVID-19 tests completed statewide Tuesday were positive, DHEC says.

As hospitals follow a federal mandate to upload data to a new national data system, DHEC says it is limited in its ability to report state hospital information.

DHEC reported Wednesday that 86.7 percent of the 9,961 hospital beds in the state Tuesday were occupied and 1,607 of the hospitalized are COVID-19 patients. It also reported the data is accurate within 10 percent.

Beaufort County could have as many as 16,334 undiagnosed cases, DHEC officials say.

Positive cases are those in which a patient has been tested for and diagnosed with coronavirus. Because of a lack of access to testing, state health officials have said that for every confirmed case, there could be up to nine people who are infected but have not been tested.

The total count of cases includes anyone who has tested positive since the pandemic started. The data also includes those who have recovered or died.

DHEC’s totals can have small increases and decreases day to day as officials find discrepancies in the data.

DHEC does not provide an overall, county-by-county number of cases versus the number of people who have recovered. It also does not release any identifying information or specifics concerning underlying conditions someone who dies from the coronavirus might have had.

DHEC counts deaths based on where the patient lives rather than where he or she died.

Coronavirus cases at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island are being reported in the 29902 ZIP code.