Beaufort Co.’s COVID-19 case average drops; school is ‘quarantining entire classrooms’
One of Beaufort County’s key COVID-19 metrics has improved in the past week, though it remains too early to tell whether the recent change signifies a new trend.
The county’s seven-day average of newly confirmed cases, as of Tuesday, dropped to 135 infections per day, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
That’s down from the record-breaking average of 156 cases per day reported last Thursday.
There’s no cause for celebration just yet, however.
The average on Tuesday was still very high. (The case average during the Lowcountry’s winter surge in early January, for example, hovered around 113 infections per day.)
And the average may be lower now simply because it’s been over six days since the county logged its record-shattering, single-day high of 235 cases on Aug. 20.
What’s happening in schools?
From Aug. 23 to 29, the Beaufort County School District recorded 208 new student COVID-19 cases and 26 new staff coronavirus infections.
In that time period, the second week of school, 2,566 students and 66 staff members were quarantined. That quarantine number nearly doubled from the previous week, when 1,355 people were quarantined in total.
One out of every nine BCSD students quarantined last week. And the district has logged a total of 434 COVID-19 cases since the first day of school on Aug. 16.
Principals also are beginning to sound the alarm on widespread quarantines.
In a Monday night email, Bluffton Middle School Principal Matt Hall told parents that the school “has had to begin quarantining entire classrooms.”
“If we continue to see a rise in Covid cases in our school, we will need to quarantine our ENTIRE school for at least two weeks and move to 100% online learning,” Hall wrote, adding that he was “highly encouraging masks in our school building.”
Countywide data
Here’s the latest Beaufort County coronavirus data from DHEC:
New cases reported Tuesday: 132 confirmed, 13 probable
New cases reported Monday: 97 confirmed, 19 probable
New cases reported Sunday: 136 confirmed, 18 probable
New cases reported Saturday: 186 confirmed, 31 probable
Deaths reported from Saturday to Tuesday: 1 confirmed
Seven-day average of new cases: 135 confirmed infections per day
Two-week incidence rate: 1,307 cases per 100,000 people
ZIP code data as of Sunday
Bluffton ZIP code, 29910: 1,687 cases since July 1
Hilton Head Island ZIP code, 29926: 628 cases
Hilton Head ZIP code, 29928: 249 cases
Beaufort ZIP code, 29902: 783 cases
Okatie ZIP code, 29909: 373 cases
