South Carolina hits grim milestone by surpassing 10,000 ‘confirmed’ COVID-19 deaths
More than 10,000 people in South Carolina have been confirmed to have died from coronavirus, according to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.
Another 1,491 have been listed as “probable” deaths, bringing the statewide death toll to 11,532 as of Thursday. In August, DHEC reported that the state surpassed 10,000 confirmed and probably deaths.
The grim milestone comes just one day after the state reported one of its deadliest days during the pandemic with 138 new deaths. DHEC reported 49 new deaths on Thursday, eight of which are listed as “probable.”
The agency also said the percentage of fully vaccinated South Carolinians has finally reached 50, but that is still one of the lowest rates in. the country.
A new study by The Washington Post shows that one out of every 500 Americans has died from COVID-19. Hispanics, Black people and Native Americans are disproportionately affected compared to white people, the study shows. The statistics appear worse in South Carolina, as one out of every 450 people have died from the virus.
DHEC also reported 4,306 new cases of the virus on Thursday. That brings the state’s COVID-19 case count to more than 814,000.
Nearly 158,000 cases are listed as “probable” rather than confirmed. Of the new cases reported on Thursday, 1,441 were considered “probable.”.
The state conducted 33,528 COVID-19 tests for Thursday’s data, with 11.4% coming back positive.
At least 44% of the new cases reported Wednesday were people aged 30 and under.
Children 10 and younger made up 11.4% of the new cases on Thursday, while 18.8% 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 Palmetto State continues to trend in the wrong direction, as cases are soaring.
Last week, South Carolina had its second-highest weekly total for new cases with nearly 38,000. The previous week, there were more than 35,000 new cases. The only higher weekly total was in early January, when the state had more than 40,000 cases. The state hasn’t had fewer than 1,000 new cases on any day since July 24.
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.
The overwhelming majority of new cases being reported in SC are people who are unvaccinated.
At least 173 deaths — 0.0082% — of all COVID-related deaths as of Sept. 14 have been from “breakthrough” cases, meaning the person was fully vaccinated. The majority of deaths — 65% — are people ages 71 and up. And about 65% of those who died had comorbid conditions.
Breakthrough cases that result in hospitalizations are at 0.0305%. Approximately 0.37% of fully vaccinated people ended up having an infection, according to DHEC.
Health officials recommend wearing a face mask and getting the coronavirus vaccine to help limit the spread of the virus.
