A day after coronavirus cases soared to the highest point in ten days, South Carolina health officials are reporting significantly less cases Monday.
According to a release from S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC), there were 142 new confirmed COVID-19 cases and three new deaths since Sunday. A total of 177 COVID-19 patients have died in South Carolina.
Here’s a look a the inconsistent amount of cases and deaths reported each day since South Carolina’s first cases on March 6.
Perhaps more telling is a look at national data from Sunday showing that South Carolina ranks No. 45 in the U.S. for COVID-19 testing per 100,000 people. As of Sunday, South Carolina only had 1,037 completed tests per 100,000 citizens — behind Texas (1,007 tests per 100,000 citizens), Ohio (997), Arizona (952), Virginia (910) and Kansas (903).
On April 2, we reported that South Carolina was No. 48 in the nation for testing per capita. The state later improved its testing and ranked at No. 38 in the U.S. on April 15, but South Carolina soon fell back down to the near the bottom of the rankings.
South Carolina has tested a total of 52,145 people and 46,532 of those tests were negative. A total of 5,613 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in SC.
Here’s a look at how South Carolina compares with other states when it comes to COVID-19 cases per capita:
Also worth noting — SCDHEC’s latest news release said a private lab in Greenville just dumped a month’s worth of test results over the weekend. This somewhat explains that major spike we saw yesterday with 237 cases reported in South Carolina yesterday.
With such inconsistent and minimal testing available, it will be more difficult for South Carolina officials to make decisions about opening the economy back up. Federal health officials have recommended a 14-day decrease in the amount of cases per day before lifting stay-at-home measures.
On Monday, Gov. Henry McMaster extended the state of emergency for another 15 days, which means the governor’s previous mandates such as no groups of three or more people gathered in a public space will remain in effect.
All three people who died Monday were elderly from Clarendon, Florence, and Greenville counties.
“As of this morning, 4,824 hospital beds are available and 6,558 are utilized, which is a 57.6% statewide hospital bed utilization rate,” DHEC officials said in its Monday news release.
The hospital bed utilization rate is up about 3 percentage points from a week ago.
South Carolina officials estimate that about 78 percent of COVID-19 patients in the state did not require hospitalization for their illness.
On Friday, SCDHEC said at least 73 percent of the people who have tested positive for COVID-19 have recovered from the illness.
SCDHEC’s projections have shifted fairly dramatically in the last ten days. Originally, it predicted South Carolina would have 8,677 total cases by May 2. Now it shows 6,206 cases by May 2 and nearly 7,000 COVID-19 cases by May 9.
According to the the latest projections from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), a leading model for COVID-19 used by SCDHEC. South Carolina has possibly moved past the projected peak of the virus, which they are now saying was on April 9 for deaths and April 23 for hospital resources.
According to IHME, 283 South Carolinians are expected to die from the coronavirus in total between March and August.
IHME experts said that after June 8 “relaxing social distancing may be possible with containment strategies” in South Carolina.
It’s important to note IHME modeling – which has been criticized – has shifted dramatically in the last few weeks and could change again.
When it comes to social distancing, South Carolina is ranked at the bottom compared to the rest of the country. The latest data from Unacast — a company that purchases data from cell phone companies — shows that SC has become increasingly worse at social distancing in the past few days. The company now gives the Palmetto State an “F” for its lack of change in behavior overall since Feb.
Richland County remains the epicenter for COVID-19 in South Carolina with 840 total cases. Here’s a breakdown of cases by zip code in South Carolina.
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