COVID updates: DHEC reports 10,744 cases, 14 deaths, 52 children hospitalized
As COVID-19 cases continue to rise, Prisma Health reported that on Thursday across the state there were 647 COVID-19 patients in Prisma hospitals, and that79% of those were unvaccinated.
The total did not include the 105 non-infectious in-patients, meaning hospital patients who are no longer consider infectious but are still hospitalized for illnesses.
At a news conference Wednesday, Prisma doctors again urged residents to get vaccinated and boosted, to social distance, to wear a mask and to wash their hands.
"Omicron is far more infectious than the previous strains, maybe two or three times more infectious than Delta," Dr. Divya Ahuja, an Infectious Diseases doctor said Wednesday.
At Prisma-Upstate's Children's Hospital in Greenville, 17 children were admitted with a COVID-19 diagnosis, according to Dr. Robin Lacroix, Medical Director, Prisma Health Children’s Hospital.
Children who are still admitted at the hospital 20 days after their illness began are not considered infectious but some are still critically ill, Lacroix said.
In the Upstate, none of the children hospitalized are vaccinated.
"As a mother and a pediatrician, it makes me sad because we know perhaps this could've helped particularly those children who have become so ill and had to rely on ventilator support. We could've prevented that progression from happening," Lacroix said Wednesday.
Half of the children hospitalized with COVID-19 in the Upstate are younger than 5 and not eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations.
"Many of them are too young to mask. Its reliant on the adults and older children to try to protect them," Lacroix said.
Many schools have made the decision to go to virtual learning after the holiday break because of the outbreak of cases among students and staff, according to Dr. Brannon Traxler, public health director for the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.
Previously, students who were exposed to COVID-19 and had to quarantine had to have a negative test after five days to return to school. However, recognizing the limited at-home rapid tests access and turn around times for PCR tests, DHEC has updated its guidance to recommend that a negative test should not be required.
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10,744 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19
DHEC reported 10,744 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, and 52 children were also hospitalized with COVID-19.
There were also 14 deaths reported, based on information the agency gathered on Monday.
Overall, South Carolina has now tallied 12,966 confirmed deaths involving a COVID-19 diagnosis as well as 2,063 probable deaths.
Of the 35,060 COVID-19 test results reported Wednesday, 33.4% were positive.
The state cumulative case total is now well over one million with 968,084 confirmed cases and an additional 257,486 probable cases reported.
Greenville County had 1,490 new confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases reported Wednesday. The most populated of the state's 46 counties, Greenville County accounts for 10.2% of the state's population, according to Census Bureau estimates, and made up 13.8% of the cases.
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Pickens County, which accounts for 2.5% of the state's population, accounted for 3.1% (335) of the cases announced Wednesday.
Spartanburg, which accounts for 6.4% of the state's population, accounted for 9.3% (1,004) of the new cases, and Anderson, which accounts for 3.9% of the population, accounted for 2.6% (286) of the cases.
Children's hospitals report 52 hospitalized with COVID
The South Carolina Children's Hospital Collaborative reported Wednesday that the state has 52 children hospitalized with a COVID-19 diagnosis. Although not the highest, it is higher than it was during the Delta surge.
The peak number of child hospitalizations during the Delta surge was 38. With omicron, the peak has been as high as 54, Maggie Cash, Executive Director of the South Carolina's Children's Hospital Collaborative, said in an email to The Greenville News.
"We are consistently seeing higher numbers of children needing hospitalization this time, and many more children that are under age 5 – the group too young to be vaccinated," Cash said.
Beds in pediatric intensive-care units in the state are operating between 107% capacity and 33% capacity. Specific information on which hospitals were over capacity wasn't immediately shared by the collaborative, which represents South Carolina's four children's hospitals — Prisma-Upstate's Children's Hospital in Greenville, Prisma-Midlands' Children's Hospital in Columbia, McCleod's Children's Hospital in Florence and the Medical University of South Carolina's Children's Hospital in Charleston.
There are four children on ventilators, according to Wednesday's report.
Check back for more on this developing story.
Tamia Boyd is a Michigan native who covers breaking news in Greenville. Email her at tboyd@gannett.com, and follow her on Twitter @tamiamb.
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: COVID updates: Cases, deaths, child hospitalizations in South Carolina
