On Sunday, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) announced that the state has confirmed 273,659 cases of COVID-19 including 4,370 cases identified on Christmas Day.
The Sunday report set a new record statewide for daily coronavirus cases; previously, the high was 3,648 new cases set on Dec. 18.
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File Business and government leaders from Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties are trying to plan for how to reopen the local economy during the coronavirus pandemic. Here, construction workers from The Jasper apartment building site gather around a food trucks at lunchtime. |
In Berkeley County, 8,827 cases have been confirmed with 110 of those resulting in death through Friday night.
To date 100,297 tests have been administered.
According to DHEC data obtained by the Berkeley Independent, the period between July 1 and Aug. 1 saw the most new cases of the coronavirus. Numbers dropped significantly through Oct. 1 to a low of just seven new cases. The number of new confirmed cases has slowly increased since then topping out again on Dec. 11 with 74 new cases. On Christmas Day, the last day for which data is available, 69 new cases were confirmed.
“As of December 25, 2020, 88.8 percent of those 164,401 individuals [across the state] for which we have symptom onset data are estimated to have recovered from COVID-19, and 11.2 percent are estimated to remain ill,” the report stated.
Next door in Dorchester County, 108,717 tests have been administered with 7,958 cases confirmed and 252 cases required hospitalization. A total 125 people have died from the virus in Dorchester County.
Christmas Eve in Dorchester County set a record of 107 confirmed cases. The previous single-day high was July 13. Since Sept. 19, when Dorchester County saw just 13 new cases, the number has seen a steady increase through the Christmas Eve high.
The top South Carolina counties for new coronavirus cases reported Sunday were Greenville, 897; Spartanburg, 412; and Lexington, 308.
DHEC officials said that its first allocation of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine arrived Dec. 14-16, which included 42,900 doses.
“Health care facilities received allocations directly from the federal government and have begun vaccinating their front-line medical workers in accordance with phase 1a vaccination guidance,” according to a prepared statement sent to media outlets. “The state is expected to receive between 200,000 to 300,000 doses by the end of the year, however, those amounts are subject to change.”
DEHEC and federal government sources both said the goal is to have enough COVID-19 vaccine for all people who wish to be vaccinated. However, in the initial stages of the national COVID-19 Vaccination Program, there is limited supply of the vaccine.
