SC COVID-19 cases increase by 8,200 over three days, 134 more people die

South Carolina reported three days of COVID-19 data on Monday, adding 8,282 COVID-19 more cases and 134 additional deaths.

That brings the state’s COVID-19 case count to more than 850,000, according to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control. The death toll is 12,213.

The state added 3,133 cases and 60 deaths on Saturday; 2,917 cases and 67 deaths on Sunday; and 2,232 cases and seven deaths on Monday. At least 1,779 of the cases were considered to be “probable” cases. Daily COVID-19 numbers are from testing results conducted two days earlier.

Nearly 46% of the new cases reported over the past three days were people age 30 and younger.

Children 10 and younger made up 13.3% of the new cases reported for the three days, while 17.8% of the cases were diagnosed in people between the ages of 11 and 20.

At the earlier height of the pandemic between December and February, only 5.8% of positive cases were kids 10 and under.

The highly contagious delta variant is likely responsible for the majority of new COVID-19 cases in South Carolina, according to state health officials. The exact number of delta cases is unknown because only a fraction of confirmed cases undergo genome sequencing, the process to determine the variant.

There have been 256 deaths — 0.01% of all cases — as of Sept. 24 from “breakthrough” cases, meaning the person was fully vaccinated. The majority of deaths — 65% — are people ages 71 and up. About 65% of those who died had comorbid conditions. And 0.47% of all fully vaccinated people have been infected, while just 0.04% fully vaccinated people have been hospitalized.

Health officials recommend wearing a face mask and getting the coronavirus vaccine to help limit the spread of the virus. South Carolina’s vaccination rate is 51.7%, one of the lowest in the country.