COLUMBIA, S.C. — 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.
As of Friday, 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.
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 the meantime, state health officials have advised South Carolinians 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.
