Descending virus numbers and a special DHEC announcement

Deaths, cases, and test positives all dropped during the latest 24-hour accounting from the South Carolina health agency.  Total cases dropped below two thousand to 1,554.  Twenty-four of the cases are Oconeeans. Thirty-two deaths reported statewide, none locally. Of a whopping 25,112 test results received statewide, the positivity fell below 10%, down to 8.8%.  It had been 21.6% on Monday’s report.  DHEC also announced a change in the way the percent is calculated.  “The change will allow South Carolina percent positive calculations to be more easily compared to those used by federal entities, including the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Starting yesterday, DHEC now reports percent positive using the tests-over-tests method.  It’s now calculated by dividing all positive COVID-19 tests by the total number of COVID tests (positive and negative) and then multiplying the result by 100 to get a percent,” the statement reads.  With the change, we will notice a big drop in the number representing percent positive. But it doesn’t mean the level of spread in the community has decreased.  Percent positive will appear to be lower only because it is calculated differently.  To the question of what the percent positivity tells us about spread, DHEC said this:  “Percent positive will be high if the number of positive tests is high, or if the number of total tests is low.  A higher percent positive suggests higher spread and that there are likely more people with COVID-19 in the community who have not been tested.”  In another way of saying it, percent positivity does not reflect a complete picture of the virus in the state, but it tell some information about the spread.