COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina posted its fourth consecutive day of more than 1,000 new confirmed COVID-19 cases Friday, as a recent surge in coronavirus cases continues.
Officials from the Department of Health and Environmental Control reported 1,348 new cases — the fifth time in the past week that South Carolina has had more than 1,000 new cases in a day. Officials also recorded 17 more confirmed deaths related to the virus.
Since the first cases of COVID-19 were identified in South Carolina in March, officials have reported 181,243 confirmed cases and 3,835 confirmed deaths.
DHEC officials recorded 9,198 individual test results Friday, putting the percentage of positive tests at 14.7%. It has been more than three weeks since DHEC has reported a percentage positive under 10%, a level that officials such as state epidemiologist Linda Bell have previously said indicates continued disease spread in the community.
The average rate of positive tests topped 20% in parts of July and declined to below 9% in late September, never reaching the 5% mark that health experts have cited as a goal for safely reopening.
Since the start of October, that average percentage has steadily started to increase again, reaching around 14% this week.
A total of 2,261,465 tests have now been performed in the state since March. Officials are now recommending regular testing for anyone who is "out and about" in the community or unable to wear a facial covering and practice social distancing be tested regularly and are urging residents to take advantage of free testing sites throughout the state. They've also expanded types of testing to include shallow nasal swabs, oral swabs or saliva testing at different locations.
The Upstate region has seen a surge in new cases over the past month or so and accounted for many of the new cases reported Thursday — Greenville County led the state with 242 new cases, Spartanburg County had the second most with 109, and Anderson County added 67. Those three counties alone had more than one-third of Thursday's new cases.
In the Midlands, Richland County added 60 more cases, while neighboring Lexington County added 52.
The deaths reported Friday occurred among individuals from Anderson (1), Berkeley (1), Charleston (1), Florence (1), Georgetown (1), Greenville (3), Kershaw (1), Lancaster (1), Laurens (1), Pickens (1), Richland (2) and York (2).
The individual who died in Pickens County was middle aged, DHEC reported, defined as between 35 and 54 years old. The other 16 individuals reported Thursday were elderly, defined by DHEC as 65 years old and up.
In recent weeks, parts of the country have hit a "third wave" of infections higher than the peaks seen in the spring and summer, leading to rising national numbers regularly surpassing 100,000 new cases per day.
South Carolina, however, has not seen several of its key metrics hit the highs reached in July — the number of daily new cases reported hit a peak of 2,343 on July 18, the seven-day moving average of the percentage of positive tests topped out at 21.2% on July 14 and the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients reached 1,723 on July 23.
Despite not reaching those highs, though, South Carolina officials have warned that the state is seeing rises in key metrics, especially in the Upstate area. Indicators such as daily case rates by population and percentage of positive tests have risen since the start of September.
And while the rate of infection has risen, the rate of testing has declined from the highs reported in the middle of the summer, when DHEC was recording more than 10,000 tests per day, and plateaued throughout the fall.
Officials have said there has not been a reduction in testing capacity but in demand as "testing fatigue" sets in, and they've urged residents to get tested more regularly to hit testing goals.
Across the country, health experts have said official case counts have likely undercounted the number of cases to large degrees. At one point, South Carolina officials estimated that 86% of those infected never got tested or diagnosed, but they no longer provide those estimations.
DHEC has also been recording probable cases and probable deaths. A probable case is someone who has not received a lab test result but has virus symptoms or a positive antibody test. A probable death is someone who has not gotten a lab test but whose death certificate lists COVID-19 as a cause of death or a contributing factor.
On Friday, health officials reported 100 new probable cases and one new probable death from COVID-19. That puts the total number of probable cases at 10,858 and total probable deaths at 266.
