SC COVID-19 cases increase by 10,500 over three days, 109 more people die
South Carolina reported three days of COVID-19 data on Monday, adding 10,535 COVID-19 more cases and 109 additional deaths.
That brings the state’s COVID-19 case count to more than 830,000 since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control. The death toll is 11,721.
The state added 3,754 cases and 23 deaths on Saturday; 3,919 cases and 63 deaths on Sunday; and 2,862 cases and 23 deaths on Monday.
Nearly 47% 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 18.1% 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.
Two weeks ago, South Carolina saw 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 seen 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.
There have been 215 deaths — 0.01% of all cases — as of Sept. 17 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 0.42% of all fully vaccinated people have been infected, while just 0.0361% 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 50.7%, one of the lowest in the country.
