Advertisement

South Carolina adds more than 3,100 new coronavirus cases, 43 deaths over three days

The South Carolina state Senate voted to prevent local governments, state government and school districts from mandating employees and students get the COVID vaccine.

South Carolina added more than 3,100 new coronavirus cases and 43 deaths over the past three days, according to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.

The totals released Monday also snap a streak of four consecutive days of the state surpassing 1,000 daily cases after previously not hitting the mark for 35 days.

State health officials had warned of an uptick in cases following the Thanksgiving holiday, despite the state Department of Health and Environmental Control recording fewer than 1,000 new COVID cases every day throughout November. A similar streak of lower numbers hadn’t occurred since summer, when daily case totals were around the lowest since the pandemic began.

DHEC reported 799 cases and 21 deaths for Monday; 1,007 cases and three deaths on Sunday; and 1,321 cases and 19 deaths for Saturday. Of the 3,127 new cases, at least 1,081 were listed as “probable” rather than confirmed. That brings the state’s total COVID-19 case count to nearly 925,000 since March 2020.

The 43 new deaths reported by the agency bring the statewide death toll to 14,314. More than 400 people have died of COVID-19 in South Carolina over the past month, the lowest monthly death total since August.

About 42% of the new cases reported for the past three days were people age 30 and under. Children 10 and younger made up 12.7% of the new cases, while 13.4% of the cases were diagnosed in people between the ages of 11-20.

At the earlier height of the pandemic between December 2019 and February 2020, only 5.8% of positive cases were kids 10 and under.

The Palmetto State’s downward trend of cases over the previous month had shown the spread of the virus was slowing significantly compared to months prior, but the recent uptick may cause concern with the new omicron variant reaching the U.S.

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 511 deaths — 0.0209% of all cases — as of Dec. 3 from “breakthrough” cases, meaning the person was fully vaccinated. The majority of deaths — 59% — are people age 71 and up. About 61% of those who died had comorbid conditions. And 0.8630% of all fully vaccinated people have been infected, while nearly 0.0611% of 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 has one of the lowest fully vaccination rates in the country among its eligible population with an estimated 50.5%.