Nearly 5,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases reported in SC Friday, a new daily record
State health officials Friday reported a record 4,986 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 28 confirmed deaths from the virus.
Friday’s case total easily exceeds the previous daily record of 4,370 cases, set on Christmas.
The state Department of Health and Environmental Control has now reported at least 4,000 daily confirmed cases five times in the last two weeks, 3,000 cases on 14 separate days in the last month and at least 2,000 cases in all but five days since the beginning of December.
Since last March, the state has reported 315,353 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 5,217 coronavirus deaths.
South Carolina counts another 28,823 cases, including 91 Friday, as probable positives, and another 478 deaths, including six Friday, as probable COVID-19 deaths.
DHEC defines a probable case as someone who has had a positive antigen test or has virus symptoms and is at high risk for infection. Probable deaths are ones where the death certificate lists COVID-19 as the cause of or a contributing factor to death, but the person was not tested for the virus.
Nearly 32% of the 15,691 COVID-19 tests reported Friday were positive for the virus, according to DHEC. It’s the eighth time in the last nine days that the state’s positivity rate has exceeded 30%.
The state’s seven-day COVID-19 positivity rate, which provides an idea of how widespread infection is in a testing area, is the highest it has ever been.
Elevated percent positive rates indicate there are likely more people infected with COVID-19 in the community who have not yet been tested and that testing may need to be ramped up.
The World Health Organization last year advised governments not to reopen until percent positive rates were at 5% or lower for at least 14 days.
Roughly 16% of all COVID-19 tests administered in South Carolina since last March have come back positive, according to DHEC. The state’s seven-day percent positive rate briefly dipped below 5% in mid-May but has otherwise remained well above the WHO’s guidelines for reopening.
Health officials said Friday that South Carolina had received 232,900 total doses of COVID-19 vaccine and that 78,562 of those doses had been administered, according to DHEC.
The majority of the doses received, or 146,500, are Pfizer-BioNTech doses that have gone to frontline health care workers and community first responders. The other 86,400 are Moderna doses that have been reserved for long-term care facility residents and staff.
About 90% of the doses administered have been the Pfizer doses going to health care workers. To date, only 8,232 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine have been administered at 114 long-term care facilities across the state, DHEC said.
Another 84,000 people have made appointments for vaccinations.
Frontline medical workers, residents of long-term care facilities and others who are at increased risk of contracting the virus or are at high risk of experiencing severe complications from it will be prioritized for vaccination over the next several months.
In an effort to speed up vaccinations, the pace of which lawmakers have criticized, DHEC announced plans Friday to make it easier for the elderly to receive coronavirus vaccines.
The agency said hospitals should now offer vaccinations to inpatients who are 65 and older who don’t have COVID-19.
“It is within our state’s best interest to allow hospitals to begin vaccinating their admitted patients who are aged 65 years and older,” said Brannon Traxler, DHEC’s interim health director. “By moving up these patients who are currently admitted in our hospitals we are ensuring that the most vulnerable among us are being vaccinated as quickly as possible.”
The move came after a push by hospital executives Thursday to loosen the restrictions on who can get vaccines, although Traxler said the decision was not a direct response to the frustrations the executives aired.
As South Carolina’s vaccine rollout continues, state health officials have advised residents to continue taking measures to mitigate spread of COVID-19.
DHEC urges anyone who is symptomatic or who has been exposed to someone with COVID-19 to get tested themselves and recommends routine monthly testing for anyone who is out and about in the community, even if they are asymptomatic.
To find a testing location near you, visit DHEC’s website at scdhec.gov/covid19/covid-19-testing-locations.
How are hospitals being impacted?
Hospitalizations for COVID-19 declined slightly Friday to 2,396, the first time in six days they were not at a record high.
However, a record 488 of those hospitalized with COVID-19 are in intensive care units, and a record 251 are on ventilators, according to DHEC. More than 25% of all South Carolina inpatients are currently being treated for COVID-19.
Total hospital bed occupancy, which has hovered around 80% for weeks, reached 84.5% Friday, while ICU bed occupancy rose to more than 82%, data show.
In Richland County, 78% of hospital beds were occupied Friday, and in Lexington County, 94% of beds are full, data show.
Which counties were affected?
COVID-19 cases in the Upstate are skyrocketing, outpacing all other South Carolina regions.
The Upstate’s seven-day average of new cases is more than 1,560, four times what it was in early November, according to DHEC.
Greenville County, the state’s most populous county, has reported more than twice as many cases as any other county in South Carolina over the past month.
In the Upstate Friday, Greenville again led all counties with 809 COVID-19 cases, followed by Spartanburg County with 274, Anderson County with 264 and Pickens County with 234, according to DHEC.
COVID-19 cases in the Midlands are below the Upstate’s numbers but also have surged since late November, spiking significantly in the past week. Richland led all Midlands counties Friday with 374 cases, followed by York with 356 cases and Lexington with 329.
The number of positive tests in the state’s Pee Dee and Lowcountry regions are well below the Upstate and the Midlands but have risen significantly in the past five weeks.
Horry (186) reported the most cases in the PeeDee Friday, while Charleston’s 238 cases were most in the Lowcountry, followed by Beaufort’s 227 cases.
Of the 28 deaths reported Friday, 26 were elderly (65 and older) and two were middle-aged (35-64), according to DHEC.
South Carolinians from age 0 to 106 have died after contracting COVID-19, but the disease has taken the greatest toll on elderly residents.
The average age of all South Carolinians who have died from coronavirus complications is 75, and the vast majority of those who died — 87% — were over 60, data show.
How is COVID-19 trending in SC?
Daily case rates are easily the highest they’ve ever been, up nearly 90% in the last month, with 67 people per 100,000 testing positive for the novel coronavirus over the past 30 days.
COVID-19 hospitalizations have also been increasing rapidly, with Friday’s numbers more than 40% higher than they’ve been on average over the past month, according to DHEC.
The number of people being tested across the state is also rising. An average of 234 tests per 100,000 individuals have been performed daily over the last 30 days, a 22% increase from the month prior, data show.
An average of 25.4% of those tests have come back positive in the past 30 days, far higher than the state’s cumulative 16.3% positivity average.
Overall, nearly 4 million tests have been conducted in South Carolina.
This story was originally published January 8, 2021 at 3:29 PM with the headline "Nearly 5,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases reported in SC Friday, a new daily record."