COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina recorded nearly 50 new deaths and saw its percent positive rate rise above 20 again, a leading indicator thath the spread of the virus is still wide.
The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) Thursday announced 1,636 new confirmed cases and 20 new probable cases of the coronavirus, 48 additional confirmed deaths and 8 new probable deaths.
This brings the total number of confirmed cases to 87,117 probable cases to 455, confirmed deaths to 1,599, and 72 probable deaths.
Confirmed and probable cases: please click here.
Confirmed and probable deaths: please click here.
Testing in South Carolina
As of Wednesday, a total of 745,198 tests have been conducted in the state. See a detailed breakdown of tests in South Carolina on the Data and Projections webpage. DHEC’s Public Health Laboratory is operating extended hours and is testing specimens seven days a week, and the Public Health Laboratory’s current timeframe for providing results to health care providers is 24-48 hours.
Percent Positive
The total number of individual test results reported to DHEC Wedneday statewide was 7,600 (not including antibody tests) and the percent positive was 21.5%.
More Than 100 Mobile Testing Clinics Scheduled Statewide
As part of our ongoing efforts to increase testing in underserved and rural communities across the state, DHEC is working with community partners to set up mobile testing clinics that bring testing to these communities. Currently, there are 108 mobile testing events scheduled through September 29 with new testing events added regularly. Find a mobile testing clinic event near you at scdhec.gov/covid19mobileclinics.
Residents can visit scdhec.gov/covid19testing for information about getting tested at one of 214 permanent COVID-19 testing facilities across the state.
Hospital Bed Occupancy
Since July 22, the federal government has required hospitals nationwide to report data directly to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through a new TeleTracking system, which replaces the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s National Healthcare Safety Network system that had been used by hospitals for reporting data throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, the TeleTracking system asks hospitals to report all of their available beds as one total number, not broken down by bed type as the NHSN system had. Therefore, hospitals’ total number of beds reported includes pediatric beds, neonatal intensive care unit (ICU) bassinets, psychiatric beds, labor and delivery beds, rehabilitation beds and others. As a practical matter, not all of these bed types could be used for caring for adult patients hospitalized with COVID-19, or other medical issues.
DHEC is working with the S.C. Hospital Association to create a new process for gathering inpatient bed availability and occupancy from each hospital in the state, as this is the reporting metric that best provides the number of hospital beds available for caring for adult COVID-19 patients.
South Carolina, along with multiple other states, are also working in close coordination with federal partners to improve the new TeleTracking system’s reporting structure in order to provide the most accurate and actionable data possible.
As we continue to refine hospital bed data, with the TeleTracking system now implemented by South Carolina hospitals, DHEC is able to resume reporting of the following key information:
- ICU beds: 1,440 total; 273 available; 1,167 in use (81.04% utilization rate)
- COVID-19 patients hospitalized: 1,563; 389 in ICU; 245 ventilated