After what appeared to be signs of a steady decline, reported coronavirus cases in South Carolina spiked to a new daily record on Thursday afternoon – with health officials also announcing a pair of additional fatalities related to the virus.
The new numbers are sure to revive an ongoing debate over plans to reopen the Palmetto State economy – which is reeling as a result of the coronavirus-related shutdown.
Just like the national economy …
According to the latest release from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC), there were 276 new confirmed or presumed positive coronavirus cases in South Carolina since the last batch of data was released on Wednesday. That brings the statewide total to 3,931 confirmed or presumed positive cases since the agency first began tracking cases in early March.
Until today’s announcement, the highest one-day total of new confirmed cases in South Carolina was 274 – a figure announced by the agency on April 10, 2020. Also, prior to the release of Thursday’s data reported cases in South Carolina had dipped for three straight days – 127 on Monday, 115 on Tuesday and 105 yesterday.
That streak is now over …
Health officials are still calling on the state to reach 8,677 confirmed cases by May 2 – which is sixteen days away. That would mean a rate of 296 new confirmed cases per day.
As we have frequently pointed out, it is not clear at this point how many South Carolinians have contracted the coronavirus and recovered – nor is it clear how many Palmetto State residents may have had the virus and recovered before government began tracking the data.
Similarly, we do not know how many lives the virus may have claimed prior to the first cases being announced on March 6, 2020.
We do know SCDHEC has conducted 9,901 negative tests in its public health laboratory, and another 22,452 negative tests have reportedly been conducted by private laboratories. That’s a total of 36,284 negative tests statewide.
What do experts expect the virus to do?
According to the latest projections from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) in Seattle, Washington, a total of 680 South Carolinians are expected to die as result of exposure to the first wave of the virus. That figure is higher than the 470 deaths projected early last week (but well below the 1,090 Palmetto State deaths the IHME was originally predicting).
IHME modeling – which has been criticized – projects the peak of the the first wave of the virus to hit the Palmetto State between April 27, 2020 and May 6, 2020 and for deaths to gradually taper off to zero by the middle of June.
Take a look …
(Click to view)
(Via: IHME)
As of Thursday afternoon, at least 659,674 Americans had tested positive for the virus, according to a database maintained by The New York Times. Of those, an estimated 30,207 had died as result of being exposed to it – including 12,192 coronavirus-related fatalities in New York.
Of course, those New York numbers have been called into question. Just yesterday, New York City officials added 3,700 people its coronavirus death toll that were presumed to have died as a result of exposure to the virus – but who had never been tested for it.
Worldwide, as of Thursday afternoon there were more than 2.1 million confirmed cases and nearly 142,150 deaths, according to the latest statistics from Johns Hopkins. The latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO) showed 1.9 million confirmed cases and just over 131,000 deaths.
Developing …
-FITSNews
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