South Carolina reports lowest single-day total of COVID cases since July

South Carolina reported fewer than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases for the 11th straight day Tuesday, the first time that’s happened since July.

The Palmetto State’s downward trend of cases shows the spread of the virus has slowed significantly compared to months earlier. Only once over the past 18 days has the state reported more than 1,000 cases, according to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.

State health officials reported 382 new cases Tuesday, also the lowest single-day total since July. At least 106 listed as “probable” rather than confirmed. That brings the state’s total COVID-19 case count to more than 904,000 since March 2020.

The state conducted 15,243 tests for Tuesday’s data, with 4.3% coming back positive. The state health department said cases reported came from testing completed two days earlier.

The agency also reported two new deaths, bringing the death toll to 13,898 since the start of the pandemic last year. Nearly 1,000 people have died of COVID-19 in South Carolina over the past month alone.

Over the past month, the number of tests conducted have also declined, resulting in fewer positive cases, though the positivity rate of those tests have also seen a decrease.

About 41 % of the new cases reported Tuesday were people age 30 and under.

Children 10 and younger made up 10.7% of the new cases, while 14.9% of the cases were diagnosed in people between the ages of 11-20.

At the earlier height of the pandemic between December and February 2020, only 5.8% of positive cases were kids 10 and under.

The highly contagious delta variant is likely responsible for the majority of new COVID-19 cases in South Carolina, according to state health officials. The exact number of delta cases is unknown because only a fraction of confirmed cases undergo genome sequencing, the process to determine the variant.

There have been 438 deaths — 0.0185% of all cases — as of Nov. 5 from “breakthrough” cases, meaning the person was fully vaccinated. The majority of deaths — 60% — are people age 71 and up. About 65% of those who died had comorbid conditions. And 0.725% of all fully vaccinated people have been infected, while nearly 0.057% of fully vaccinated people have been hospitalized.

Health officials recommend wearing a face mask and getting the coronavirus vaccine to help limit the spread of the virus.

South Carolina’s vaccination rate is 55.5%, among the lowest in the country.

This story was originally published November 9, 2021 at 11:22 AM with the headline "South Carolina reports lowest single-day total of COVID cases since July."

Andrew Caplan

The State

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Andrew Caplan is a watchdog journalist who hails from Florida. He comes to The State Media Company after winning several statewide awards for investigative work covering elected officials, as well as public and government entities. He holds a master’s degree from the University of South Florida.