COLUMBIA, S.C. — The state has seen a downward trend in COVID-19 positive cases over the past month, but state health officials say there's still work to be done to help prevent the spread of the virus.
"We are currently seeing a four week downward trend in the number of new cases reported out each day," Dr. Brannon Traxler with the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) said in a statewide briefing on Friday.
Traxler says she's "cautiously optimistic" about the downward trend of COVID-19 positive cases around the state.
DHEC announced 1,015 new confirmed COVID-19 positive cases on Friday, with 16 additional confirmed deaths.
"We want the percent positive lower than what it currently is," says Dr. Traxler. "It's 15 percent today. We need to be getting more people tested regularly in order to stop the spread of this disease."
Along with testing, state health officials say the use of face masks is helping to slow the spread in parts of South Carolina that have ordinances in place, while those areas that don't require coverings are seeing increases in cases.
“This new data shows us what we already knew, wearing face masks works,” said Dr. Linda Bell, S.C. State Epidemiologist.
"The residents in jurisdictions that acted first are seeing the benefits earlier. This shows the sooner prevention measures are adopted, the sooner we all benefit," State epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell said in a statement released Friday.
Earlier this week, internal emails between Dr. Bell and her DHEC colleagues, which were obtained by News 19 under the South Carolina open records law, showed Bell wished she was more outspoken when Governor McMaster reopened restaurants back in May.
During Friday's briefing, News 19 asked Dr. Traxler if the department felt pressure from the state to downplay cases.
"We provide the data and the science as completely accurately as we have it and as we know of and give that to all of our partners in state and local leadership positions so that they can make the best decisions for South Carolina and the communities," says Dr. Traxler.
She went on to say DHEC is focused on testing.
"I think when we are still seeing those high levels of percent positive rates, I think it suggests to us that there are cases out there that are going potentially unidentified and that there's a lot of disease being spread around."