DHEC reports 1 more coronavirus-related death and 7 more cases in York County
Seven more cases of COVID-19 and one more coronavirus-related death were reported in York County Thursday, state officials announced.
The Department of Health and Environmental Control said the resident who died as a result of the virus was elderly.
York County Coroner Sabrina Gast announced in early May and confirmed to The Herald on Thursday that eight residents have died after testing positive for COVID-19. As of Thursday, DHEC has reported seven coronavirus-related deaths in the county.
The York County Coroner’s Office only issues a death certificate citing COVID-19 as the cause of death if the person had tested positive for the disease, Gast said. All eight residents who died from complications after testing positive for COVID-19 were older and had other health ailments, Gast said.
York County now has had 371 COVID-19 cases confirmed and Lancaster County, which reported two new cases Thursday, now has had 126 cases confirmed since the pandemic started in March, according to DHEC.
Chester County, which did not report any new cases, has had about 59 cases confirmed, according to DHEC.
In addition to the county-level cases, DHEC identified 156 new cases of COVID-19 across the state Thursday, for a total of 10,788 cases in all 46 counties.
Thursday, DHEC also announced that three more individuals have died in Chesterfield, Fairfield and Greenville counties. Based on the agency’s count, there now have been 470 coronavirus-related deaths in South Carolina.
Coronavirus testing
As of Thursday, labs across the state have completed more than 187,788 tests, and in all about 6% of tests have come back positive.
For the second day, York and Chester counties will open free coronavirus testing sites Friday. The two counties each already have tested more than 300 people for the virus. York opened last Friday and Chester opened this week and, as a result, county officials said they are expecting more positive cases to pop up.
Chester County first opened its free coronavirus testing site Wednesday, officials said. Testing, which is being administered by MUSC, will be done at the Back Lot at 139 Cadz Street from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on May 29, and again on June 3 and 5, officials said. No appointment is required and people will receive test results within 72 hours, Douglas said.
“There’s no residency requirement,” Chester City Council member Angela Douglas said. “We want to encourage our friends and neighbors in the surrounding areas, if they haven’t been able to get to one of theirs, they are welcome to come to ours.”
Douglas said in a rural county, such as Chester, which has about 33,000 residents, there’s fewer options for residents to get essential supplies, which could put people at greater risk of spreading the virus.
“We may live physically distant from each other more so than our urban counterparts,” Douglas said. “But we have to go to the same petri dish...Or we have to travel outside of our boundaries to get things. If we want to go to a different Walmart, then we’re right there among the urban crowd. So, whether it’s our own germs or somebody else’s, we may likely get them.”
York Mayor Mike Fuesser, City Council member Steve Love and City Manager Seth Duncan urged people in York County who wish to be tested to go to the free testing Friday.
Western York County’s free coronavirus testing site at Clinton Chapel AME Zion Church will be open every Friday for the next four weeks, Duncan said. Testing is available at the church at 302 California Street in York from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. No appointment or referral is needed, Duncan said.
Piedmont Medical Center in Rock Hill also does COVID-19 testing. Affinity Health Care in Rock Hill offers drive-thru testing. North Central Family Medical Center in Rock Hill tests symptomatic patients and is planning to offer drive-thru testing by appointment.
Case projections
This week, DHEC officials have anticipated more than 1,000 new coronavirus cases. Based on DHEC projections, the weekly number of cases will climb to about 1,300 by the beginning of June and officials expect a total of 12,744 cases reported in the state by that time.
DHEC officials have estimated that as many as 86% of people who have contracted COVID-19 have not been tested or diagnosed.
The agency calculated that there are up to 2,279 unidentified cases in York County based on projections released Thursday. The agency estimated Lancaster County has as many as 774 unidentified cases, and Chester County has up to 362 unidentified cases.
Unemployment claims
Another 1,200 people in York, Lancaster and Chester counties filed unemployment claims in a week.
That figure maintains a downward trend from record highs in late March and early April, similar to what the state Department of Employment and Workforce reports statewide.
“While we see another downward-trending week, the number of people filing initial claims in South Carolina is still high, demonstrating the serious importance of the jobs that are now becoming available in our state as more and more businesses re-open their doors carefully and safely,” said Dan Ellzey, workforce department executive director.
For the week ending May 23, South Carolina had just less than 25,000 claims filed. The decrease of more than 4,500 claims from the prior week is the sixth weekly drop since the coronavirus unemployment surge hit in mid-March.
In the past 10 weeks, there have been more than 540,000 claims in South Carolina. The workforce agency paid out more than $1.5 billion in unemployment benefits during that span.
York County had 826 claims for the week ending May 23. Lancaster County had 263 claims, and Chester County 120 claims.
Since mid-March, the tri-county area has 28,477 unemployment claims. York County has the most at 19,312 claims. Lancaster County accounts for 6,099 claims, compared to 3,066 in Chester County.
Coronavirus cases by ZIP code
As of Wednesday night, there are cases in the following ZIP codes:
York County
- 29704 - 4
- 29708 - 40
- 29710 - 47
- 29715 - 48
- 29717 - 2
- 29730 - 73
- 29732 - 122
- 29745 - 24
Lancaster County
- 29058 - 5
- 29067 - 12
- 29707 - 29
- 29720 - 90
Chester County
- 29014 - 3
- 29055 - 18
- 29706 - 22
- 29712 - 3
- 29714 - 9
This story was originally published May 28, 2020 at 5:00 PM.
