For 3 days, Lancaster County reported 0 coronavirus cases. It added 8 cases Thursday.
After three consecutive days reporting zero new coronavirus cases, Lancaster County added eight cases to its total Thursday, South Carolina health officials announced.
The county now has had 116 COVID-19 cases confirmed since the pandemic started, according to the Department of Health and Environmental Control.
The agency also identified 199 new cases of COVID-19 across the state Thursday, for a total of 9,379 cases in all 46 counties. York County reported seven new cases, for a total of 324 coronavirus cases, according to DHEC. Chester County, which did not report any new cases, has had 41 cases reported.
The eight cases reported in Lancaster County does show a spike, said Darren Player, Emergency Management Director, and Steve Willis, Lancaster County Administrator.
However, Lancaster officials are unsure if the spike came from a large number of results coming back at one time and then being entered into the state system, or if there was a jump in a short period.
“What is clear is we are not out of the woods in Lancaster County,” Willis said. “This pandemic is not finished.”
The eight cases in a single day is among the most cases reported in Lancaster County since the pandemic began in March, official state numbers show.
Willis said while Lancaster County’s panhandle Indian Land area that borders Mecklenburg County and York County has had relatively few cases, the Ballantyne area of neighboring Charlotte has had far more cases.
The Ballantyne ZIP code in North Carolina across the border from Lancaster County has had 93 cases, state statistics show.
“The line between Lancaster County and Mecklenburg County is a political line, and it is clear that there are far more cases in the area just north of the line than to the south in our county,” Willis said. “We have many people right there at the border.”
Lancaster County is set to reopen most of its businesses and services in the second phase of its reopening on Tuesday.
Player said that county officials are anxious to see what Friday’s reported cases look like after Thursday’s spike followed three days of zero cases.
“We want to look at the data and see if it was one-day variance or something that continues,” Player said.
Coronavirus-related deaths
Hospitals across the state are at about 70% capacity. Thursday, DHEC officials said, of the 7,199 beds currently used across the state, 438 beds are occupied by patients with known or suspected cases of the virus.
In addition to the cases, DHEC also announced that nine more individuals have died across the state. Based on the agency’s count, there now have been 416 coronavirus-related deaths in South Carolina.
York County Coroner Sabrina Gast said her office has confirmed eight residents died after testing positive for COVID-19. As of Thursday, DHEC had reported five coronavirus-related deaths in York County.
Lancaster County has reported five coronavirus-related deaths, and Chester County has not reported any deaths, according to DHEC.
Treatment
DHEC announced Thursday South Carolina has received more doses of Remdesivir, one of the more popular drugs used as a treatment to help COVID-19 patients to recover, according to a press release from the agency.
The drug recently received an emergency use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat patients with COVID-19. In a clinical trial, the drug was shown to shorten recovery time in some COVID-19 patients, according to DHEC.
South Carolina received enough doses to treat up to 66 patients hospitalized with the virus in the initial federal distribution, according to agency. DHEC officials said the agency has now received more doses of Remdesivir, and it will distribute the drug using the same allocation process.
Physicians treating patients with COVID-19 can request Remdesivir, according to the release.
COVID-19 testing
As of Thursday, labs across the state have completed more than 148,901 tests, and in all about 7% of tests have come back positive. Friday, DHEC projected that about 84% of those diagnosed with the virus have recovered.
DHEC is working to nearly double the amount of statewide testing in May, by testing 2% of the state’s population, or 110,000 people, in each of the next two months, agency officials said. So far, about 1.7% of the population has been tested.
Chester County will offer its first free coronavirus testing site for residents, officials said. Testing will be done at the Back Lot at 139 Cadz Street from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on May 27 and 29, and again on June 3 and 5, according to a statement from the Medical University of South Carolina.
Western York County will open its first on-site coronavirus testing site Friday at Clinton Chapel AME Zion Church, officials said.
Piedmont Medical Center in Rock Hill also does COVID-19 testing. Affinity Health Care in Rock Hill offers drive-through testing. North Central Family Medical Center in Rock Hill tests symptomatic patients and is planning to offer drive-through testing by appointment.
Case projections
This week, DHEC officials have anticipated about 1,000 new coronavirus cases. Based on DHEC projections, the weekly number of cases will likely drop to about 900 by the end of May and officials expect a total of 10,493 cases reported in the state by that time.
DHEC calculated that there are up to 1,990 unidentified cases in York County based on projections released Thursday. The agency estimated Lancaster County has as many as 713 unidentified cases, and Chester County has up to 252 unidentified cases.
According to its website, DHEC calculates the projected cases based on evidence that for every known case, there could be up to nine unidentified people with the virus.
Coronavirus cases by ZIP code
As of Wednesday night, there are cases in the following ZIP codes:
York County
- 29704 - 2
- 29708 - 36
- 29710 - 44
- 29715 - 41
- 29717 - 2
- 29730 - 67
- 29732 - 106
- 29745 - 19
Lancaster County
- 29058 - 5
- 29067 - 12
- 29707 - 28
- 29720 - 80
Chester County
- 29014 - 2
- 29055 - 7
- 29706 - 19
- 29712 - 1
- 29714 - 7
This story was originally published May 21, 2020 at 7:04 PM.
