Four York County residents die amid latest COVID surge. Here’s what’s happening now.
York County continued its trend of high COVID-19 counts, this time with multiple deaths reported, Wednesday.
Four of the 14 statewide coronavirus deaths announced Wednesday were York County residents. All were elderly. Three died on Oct. 13, 14, and 18. The other died Nov. 8.
There now have been 116 deaths this year in York County from COVID-19. Lancaster County has had 62 and Chester County 30 deaths. The 208 deaths in those three counties make up 5% of the 4,076 deaths statewide.
The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control also announced 85 confirmed and 20 probable York County cases Wednesday. It’s the seventh-highest daily total during the pandemic. It’s one fewer confirmed case than DHEC announced Tuesday. Yet there were more than three times the probable cases.
Three of the top seven daily confirmed case totals for York County have come in the past five days.
Lancaster County added 24 confirmed cases and a probable one Wednesday. Chester County had six confirmed cases and a probable one.
To date there are 11,983 confirmed or probable cases in the three counties. York County has the most at 7,747 cases. Lancaster County has 2,890 cases and Chester County 1,346 cases.
Statewide there were 987 confirmed and 111 probable COVID-19 cases on Wednesday. There have been almost 189,000 confirmed or probable cases this year.
DHEC also updated its report Wednesday on hospital beds. Hospitals are required to report how many beds are in use and available.
York County has 86.8% of its acute hospital beds occupied. That’s 250 beds with patients in them, and 38 beds available. Lancaster County is 80.7% occupied. There are 67 beds in use and 16 available. Chester County is 76.9% occupied. There are 10 beds occupied and three available.
The region has 78.8% occupancy. Statewide there are 88 hospitals with more than 13,000 beds. The state has 780 hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Those patients make up 8.86% of all hospital patients. There are 198 coronavirus patients in ICU (25.38% of all ICU) and 97 on ventilators (12.44% of all ventilator patients).
More than three quarters of all hospital inpatient and ICU beds are in use. Almost a quarter of the state’s ventilators are in use.
This story was originally published November 11, 2020 at 1:19 PM.
