COLUMBIA, S.C. — Prisma Health Richland has confirmed they are caring for a Kershaw County patient with presumptive positive novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
The patient, a woman from Kershaw County that is in her 80s,has been transferred to Prisma Health Richland Hospital in Columbia. She's one of two patients (the other is in Charleston) that an initial test revealed has the virus.
According to Primsa, she is in a 'special isolation room' that keeps team members and community members safe.
The woman was initially treated in Kershaw County, but was moved to Prisma Richland. Dr. Linda Bell, the State Epidemiologist, said the woman had a prolonged illness, and an investigation is ongoing into how she got the illness that includes finding who she may have come in contact with. When other tests couldn't determine what her illness was, doctors began considering COVID-19, and that's when the kit confirmed likely coronavirus.
According to a release, Prisma Health has extensive protocols for treating patients with potentially infectious diseases.
Prisma Health physicians, Emergency Management and Infection Prevention teams are following established infection control protocols and working closely with SC DHEC and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“The health and wellbeing of our community, including our team members, is of the utmost importance. I want to reassure everyone that Prisma Health is prepared to respond to COVID-19. We have enacted our Hospital Incident Management Team (HIMT) across Prisma Health to continue to manage our approach to this public health concern. As part of our approach, we have extensive plans in place to handle this kind of incident,” Scott Sasser, M.D., Prisma Health acute care chief clinical officer for the Midlands, said.
Prisma reminds people if they believe they may have COVID-19, call your doctor first.
For more information about COVID-19, you can visit Prisma Health's website here.
For general questions about COVID-19 residents should visit the DHEC website at scdhec.gov/COVID19 or the CDC website here.