York COVID-19 cases spike after Monday’s drop, 37th Lancaster resident dies from virus
A day after adding its lowest case count in months, York County’s coronavirus cases spiked above 50 Tuesday, South Carolina health officials said.
Monday, the county added 17 new cases, which is the fewest daily cases added since June 19, when 13 cases were reported, according to the Department of Health and Environmental Control. York County added 54 cases Tuesday. The last time the county added more than 50 cases was on Aug. 8, DHEC officials reported.
York County has tallied 4,244 cases since the pandemic started, according to DHEC.
About 18% of those infected with the virus in York County are 21-30 years old, and about 17% are 41-50 years old, according to recent DHEC data.
In South Carolina, about 20% of those infected with the virus are 21-30 years old, and about 16% are 31-40 years old, DHEC officials reported.
DHEC officials said Tuesday that 761 more people had tested positive for the virus across the state. Those cases brought the total of South Carolinians diagnosed with coronavirus to 118,116.
The agency also announced that 37 more people have died after contracting COVID-19, bringing the death toll to 2,626.
For the second consecutive day, Lancaster County added 17 cases Tuesday, according to DHEC. The county has had a total of 1,629 cases.
About 17% of those infected with the virus in Lancaster County are ages 31-40 years old, and about 16% are 41 -50 years old, according to DHEC data.
Chester County now has had a total of 878 confirmed cases after it added 11 Tuesday. About 16% of those with the virus in Chester County are 51-60 years old, according to DHEC data.
A jump in COVID-19 deaths
A Lancaster County resident died after contracting the coronavirus, DHEC officials said Tuesday.The resident, 65 or older, died Sunday, DHEC reported.
In August, there was a spike in confirmed coronavirus deaths in York and Lancaster counties.
Last week, York County added eight deaths and Lancaster County added nine. In August, York County tallied 21 deaths and Lancaster County reported 19.
In July, York County had 14 deaths and Lancaster County logged 7, according to DHEC.
There have been 36 confirmed coronavirus-related deaths since the start of the pandemic in Lancaster County, and 58% of them have been 81 or older.
Also in York County, there’s been 47 confirmed coronavirus-related deaths, and 51% of those who have died from the virus have been 81 or older.
There’s less testing
With 3,396 individual test results reported Monday, the percentage of positive tests was 22.4, DHEC said. That’s a higher percentage than health officials were reporting in April and May.
In recent weeks, the percentage of tests coming back positive has ranged from 10 to 18, but it has continued to decline since July, when the average percentage was around 20 or higher. In May, at its lowest point, the percentage of positive tests ranged from 2 to 4.
The number of tests completed across the state since March has topped one million. DHEC said Tuesday that labs in South Carolina have done 1,018,379 tests.
In York County, 40,908 tests have been completed since March, and 13.7% have come back positive. The percentage of tests that came back positive in the county in July was about 16.5, according to DHEC.
DHEC officials reported that 14,991 tests have been done in Lancaster County since March, with 14.1% being positive.
Chester County has the highest percentage of positive tests among the three counties. Of the 6,846 tests completed in the county since March, 16.7% have been positive.
DHEC officials said in recent weeks that fewer people are getting tested for the virus. The state averaged about 10,800 tests a day in July, and this month, the number of people tested daily has dipped below 3,000.
Starting in September, DHEC plans to have at least one free testing site each week in all 46 counties, officials said.
Hospitalized patients rising
Hospitals in York and Lancaster counties are filling up. About 82% of York and Lancaster county’s beds are in use.
DHEC officials did not say how many of those beds were used for COVID-19 patients. Local hospital officials said the pandemic has caused more patients to enter the hospitals, but the higher bed occupation percentages are not abnormal.
However, the number of hospitalized coronavirus patients across the state peaked at more than 1,700 at the end of July, and has slightly decreased since.
Of the 894 people hospitalized across the state with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19, 232 are in intensive care and, of those, 141 are on ventilators, state health officials said Sunday.
Of the state’s 10,104 total in-patient hospital beds, 2,269 are available, meaning about 78% of the state’s beds are in use.
