1,346 new cases of COVID-19, and 45 additional deaths in South Carolina

Updated: Jul. 31, 2020 at 4:45 PM EDT
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CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - State health officials have reported 1,346 new cases of COVID-19 and 45 additional deaths in South Carolina.

Friday’s update brings the total number of people confirmed to have COVID-19 in the state to 88,523, and those who have died to 1,647, according to DHEC. So far, there has been a total of 493 probable cases and 65 probable deaths, the state health agency reported.

DHEC also reported one additional case of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children associated with COVID-19.

“The individual is between the ages of 10-17 from the Upstate region,” DHEC officials said.

This brings the total number of MIS-C cases in South Carolina to six.

State health officials said on Friday afternoon that no COVID-19 testing events for this weekend or early next week have been canceled or postponed.

“DHEC and our partners are monitoring Hurricane Isaias, and any changes will be noted on our COVID-19 testing page and shared on social media,” state health officials said.

As of Thursday, a total of 755,034 tests have been conducted in the state. The total number of individual test results reported to DHEC on Tuesday statewide was 7,065 (not including antibody tests) and the percent positive was 19.1%.

The following is a breakdown provided by DHEC of total positive cases and total deaths in Lowcountry counties as of Thursday afternoon.

LOWCOUNTRY COUNTIES REPORTTOTAL POSITIVE CASESTOTAL DEATHS
Beaufort County3,49243
Berkeley County3,75156
Charleston County11,332154
Colleton County73831
Dorchester County2,69336
Georgetown County1,23617
Orangeburg County2,11856
Williamsburg County85724

Confirmed and probable cases reported on Friday are below:

Confirmed and probable deaths reported on Friday are below:

DHEC released the following information regarding hospital bed occupancy:

Since July 22, the federal government has required hospitals nationwide to report data directly to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through a new TeleTracking system, which replaces the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)‘s National Healthcare Safety Network system that had been used by hospitals for reporting data throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, the TeleTracking system asks hospitals to report all of their available beds as one total number, not broken down by bed type as the NHSN system had. Therefore, hospitals’ total number of beds reported includes pediatric beds, neonatal intensive care unit (ICU) bassinets, psychiatric beds, labor and delivery beds, rehabilitation beds and others. As a practical matter, not all of these bed types could be used for caring for adult patients hospitalized with COVID-19, or other medical issues.

DHEC is working with the S.C. Hospital Association to create a new process for gathering inpatient bed availability and occupancy from each hospital in the state, as this is the reporting metric that best provides the number of hospital beds available for caring for adult COVID-19 patients.

South Carolina, along with multiple other states, are also working in close coordination with federal partners to improve the new TeleTracking system’s reporting structure in order to provide the most accurate and actionable data possible.

As we continue to refine hospital bed data, with the TeleTracking system now implemented by South Carolina hospitals, DHEC is able to resume reporting of the following key information:

  • ICU beds: 1,447 total; 309 available; 1,138 in use (78.65% utilization rate)
  • COVID-19 patients hospitalized: 1,516; 373 in ICU; 237 ventilated


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