South Carolina Adds 1,000 New COVID-19 Cases Almost Daily in July, Says Dr. Linda Bell
State Epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell announced the latest COVID-19 numbers on Wednesday afternoon, and she said that during the month of July, every day, save one, saw over 1,000 new cases added…
Oconee County added five new cases Wednesday; Pickens had 16 new cases and Anderson County had 22 new confirmed and one possible case of COVID-19.
Testing in South Carolina
A total of 734,149 tests have been conducted in the state as of Wednesday. 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 yesterday statewide was 8,360 (not including antibody tests) and the percent positive was 19.9%.
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 105 mobile testing events scheduled through August 31 with new testing events added regularly. Find a mobile testing clinic event near you at scdhec.gov/
Residents can visit scdhec.gov/
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: 1,451 total; 299 available; 1,152 in use (79.39%% utilization rate)
- COVID-19 patients hospitalized: 1,596; 404 in ICU; 242 ventilated
For the latest information related to COVID-19 visit scdhec.gov/COVID-19. Visit scdmh.net for stress, anxiety and mental health resources from the S.C. Department of Mental Health.