3,300 out-of-state residents tested positive for COVID-19 while in SC, data show
More than 3,300 out-of-state residents have tested positive for COVID-19 while in South Carolina, according to health data obtained by The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette under the Freedom of Information Act.
The data show that an estimated 3,320 coronavirus cases have been recorded in South Carolina since March among residents from other states — including North Carolina and Georgia — as of Oct. 28.
For context, more than 2,000 new S.C. cases have been reported every day since last Friday.
The out-of-state residents’ infections were not added to the Palmetto State’s total case count, according to a spokeswoman for the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
“Interstate notifications and investigations that potentially span multiple states are common for other diseases, and this same process is followed for COVID-19,” wrote spokeswoman Laura Renwick in a statement Monday.
Coronavirus cases, she wrote, are reported according to a person’s state of residence to avoid a double counting of infections at the national level. That includes people living in South Carolina who list their primary residence as being elsewhere.
The case data obtained by the newspapers do not show where out-of-state residents tested positive in South Carolina.
They do, however, illustrate how difficult it can be for public health officials who are trying to slow COVID-19’s spread in a highly mobile society. It’s possible that out-of-state residents infected others while in South Carolina (although the number of people from around the United States who tested positive here is comparatively small to the more than 200,000 state residents diagnosed with COVID-19 since March).
Visitors, of course, could also get infected by an S.C. resident and then carry the novel pathogen home.
Gov. Jim Justice, for example, said a large outbreak in southern West Virginia was connected to Mountain State residents traveling to Myrtle Beach this past summer.
“DHEC staff routinely connect with their counterparts in other states for the safe and secure sharing of disease surveillance information,” Renwick wrote Monday.
When an out-of-state resident tests positive for COVID-19, DHEC sends that person’s case data to their respective state epidemiology office, according to Renwick.
Many of the 3,320 out-of-state infections reported in South Carolina as of Oct. 28 — 1,492 — were residents from North Carolina and Georgia.
Florida, New York, Texas and Virginia each had over 100 cases. Justice’s state of West Virginia only accounted for 19.
This story was originally published December 9, 2020 at 2:06 PM.
