COVID-19 update: DHEC announces 6 new cases in Lancaster County; York, Chester each add 1
Lancaster County added six new coronavirus cases Sunday and a third resident died after contracting the coronavirus, South Carolina health officials announced over the weekend.
The county now has a total of 79 positive tests since the pandemic started, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. Both York and Chester counties each reported one new case.
Lancaster County Coroner Karla Knight Deese announced the county’s third coronavirus-related death on Friday. DHEC has not reported the death as part of its daily statewide COVID-19 death count.
The six case increase in Lancaster County is believed to be a batch of tests that came back all at the same time from a private lab, said Darren Player, Lancaster County Emergency Management Director.
DHEC reported 136 new cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, across the state, for a total of 4,377 positive tests in all 46 counties.
Since the pandemic started, there have been 156 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in York County, and Chester County has had 24 cases, according to DHEC.
DHEC also announced Sunday that one other individual has died in Jasper County. Based on DHEC’s count, there have been 120 coronavirus-related deaths in South Carolina.
Three residents in York County have died after contracting the virus, according to DHEC.
Gov. McMaster lifts bans on retail stores, boat ramps
The department has reported that the majority of people who have tested positive for the coronavirus get better, or about 67% of cases. Over the weekend, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster allowed public boat docks in the state to re-open for fishing and recreation, and he is expected to lift restrictions Monday that he placed on some retail stores, The State reported.
Jeff Vissage, a South Carolina Department of Natural Resources law enforcement officer, told The Herald Sunday that three or four boat crews had been monitoring Lake Wylie over the weekend, and he said people did “really well” adhering to social distancing orders.
“It’s April, so we’re dealing with cooler weather right now,” Vissage said. “I don’t know if there would be huge crowds at this time of year because as of Saturday the surface temperature was still 66 degrees, which is pretty cool water. Moving forward into May, we start to see the larger crowds.
“But based on the amount of boat traffic that we had Saturday — and the lack of the amount of people we had to disperse — people were really adhering to the social distancing guidelines quite well.”
As of Sunday, more than 40,000 coronavirus tests had been completed by DHEC’s public lab and private labs in the state, and roughly 11% of tests have come back positive, according to the department.
Based on new projections, DHEC calculated that there are up to 958 unidentified cases in York County. The department estimated Lancaster County has as many as 485 unidentified cases and Chester County has up to 147 unidentified cases.
According to its website, DHEC calculates projected cases based on evidence that for every known case, there could be up to nine unidentified people with the virus.
Confirmed cases by ZIP codes
As of Saturday night, there are cases in the following York County ZIP codes:
- 29704 - 1
- 29708 - 15
- 29710 - 29
- 29715 - 28
- 29717 - 1
- 29730 - 27
- 29732 - 44
- 29745 - 9
There are cases in the following Lancaster County ZIP codes:
- 29058 - 4
- 29067 - 6
- 29707 - 16
- 29720 - 56
There are cases in the following Chester County ZIP codes:
- 29014 - 2
- 29055 - 5
- 29706 - 12
- 29712 - 1
- 29714 - 4
This story was originally published April 19, 2020 at 4:13 PM.
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