1,346 new cases, 45 new deaths

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) today announced 1,346 new confirmed cases and 15 new probable cases of the novel coronavirus COVID-19, 45 additional confirmed deaths and no new probable deaths.

This brings the total number of confirmed cases to 88,523 probable cases to 493, confirmed deaths to 1,647, and 65 probable deaths.  Oconee today added 16 cases to its running totals.  There were no new COVID-19 deaths reported today among Oconee residents.  There were two in Pickens County—one an elderly person; the other, a middle aged individual.

One additional case is reported of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) associated with COVID-19. The individual is between the ages of 10-17 from the Upstate region. This brings the total number of MIS-C cases in South Carolina to six.

The total number of individual test results reported to DHEC yesterday statewide was 7,065 (not including antibody tests) and the percent positive was 19.1%.

Residents can visit scdhec.gov/covid19testing for information about getting tested at one of 215 permanent COVID-19 testing facilities across the state.

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.

DHEC is able to resume reporting of the following key information:

ICU beds: 1,447 total; 309 available; 1,138 in use (78.65% utilization rate)
COVID-19 patients hospitalized: 1,516; 373 in ICU; 237 ventilated