Coronavirus cases in York and Chester climb again, after Monday’s slight decrease
York County’s daily number of coronavirus cases reported Tuesday more than doubled Monday’s total, South Carolina health officials said.
On Monday, the county reported 21 new cases, which is one of the lowest daily case counts since June 19 when the county added 13, according to state numbers. York County added 45 cases Tuesday, for a total of 3,606, according to the Department of Health and Environmental Control.
York County held several free coronavirus testing sites last week. Mike Channell, the county’s Emergency Management Deputy Director, said Tuesday’s doubling in daily cases could be caused by results from those sites, a backlog of test results being published, or a combination.
Officials also are always concerned about an increase in community spread of the virus, Channell said.
York County officials generally look at a trend of a week’s worth of results to determine if the county is seeing a general increase, decrease or flatline in positive cases, Channell said.
“We don’t panic when one day has a rise in the number of positive cases because a trend of a week, or more, gives a better idea of where we were, and where we are heading,” Channell said.
DHEC officials said 928 more people tested positive for the virus across the state, continuing a trend of falling daily case numbers over the last week. That brought the total number of South Carolinians diagnosed with the virus to 101,360.
On Monday, state health officials reported their lowest daily statewide case count since June, with 718.
The agency also announced that 45 more people have died after contracting COVID-19, bringing the death toll up to 2,012.
Chester County’s daily case count more than tripled from Monday to Tuesday. On Monday, the county reported six cases. On Tuesday, 20 more cases were confirmed, which is one of the highest case counts added in the county in recent weeks. The county now has 688 confirmed cases.
Chester County opened a free coronavirus testing site over the weekend, and county officials believe the site, where 300 people were tested, is part of the reason for the spike.
“We bounced up three times more than Monday,” said Eddie Murphy, Chester County Emergency Management Director. “We spiked because we tested 300 people at the test site Saturday.”
Murphy said some of the people who tested positive at Saturday’s site are included in Tuesday’s case count, and other results should come in on Wednesday.
Lancaster County also added 23 new coronavirus cases, for a total of 1,217 confirmed cases, according to DHEC. The county council voted Monday night to encourage residents to wear masks. Council members showed no support for any type of mandate.
Testing and hospitalizations
Another indicator of the coronavirus’ spread is the percentage of tests that turn up positive each day. In recent weeks, the percentage of positive tests averaged around 18% to 20%.
On Monday, 4,648 tests were conducted statewide, with about 20% having positive results, which is higher than what the percentage averaged in March and early April, DHEC reported. In May, at its lowest point, the percentage of positive tests averaged 2% to 4%.
Since March, labs across the state have completed 853,899 tests.
The number of hospitalized coronavirus patients peaked at more than 1,700 on July 23 and has slightly decreased since.
Of the 1,330 people hospitalized across the state with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19, 339 are in intensive care and, of those, 207 are on ventilators, state health officials said Tuesday.
Only 2,423 of the state’s 10,512 total inpatient beds are available, meaning 77% of the state’s beds are in use.
In the York and Lancaster counties, hospitals have even less available space. In York County, 78% of beds are occupied, and in Lancaster County, 81% of beds are in use.
Where to get tested
On Saturday, Affinity Health Center will have free curbside testing at York Technical College in Rock Hill from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., according to a press release from the center. Testing is available to anyone with or without symptoms, the release said.
Cases by ZIP code
As of Monday night, there are cases in the following ZIP codes:
York County
▪ 29704 - 50
▪ 29708 - 364
▪ 29710 - 411
▪ 29715 - 430
▪ 29717 - 16
▪ 29730 - 902
▪ 29732 - 864
▪ 29745 - 401
Lancaster County
▪ 29058 - 54
▪ 29067 - 117
▪ 29707 - 238
▪ 29720 - 853
Chester County
▪ 29014 - 38
▪ 29055 - 106
▪ 29706 - 425
▪ 29712 - 25
▪ 29714 - 50
This story was originally published August 11, 2020 at 5:40 PM.
