Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in South Carolina on Jan. 5

We’re tracking the most up-to-date information about the coronavirus in South Carolina. Check back for updates.

Hospitalizations hit new record high

At least 302,003 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in South Carolina since March, and 5,068 have died, according to state health officials.

The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control on Tuesday reported 2,285 new COVID-19 cases, down from 3,492 reported the day before.

Twelve new deaths were reported Tuesday.

As of Tuesday, 30.7% of COVID-19 tests in the state were positive, down from a record high of 33.3% on Monday. Health officials have said the number should be closer to 5%.

A record 2,344 people in South Carolina were hospitalized with the coronavirus as of Tuesday.

Split up DHEC? McMaster supports the idea

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted weaknesses of the state Department of Health and Environmental Control, Gov. Henry McMaster said Tuesday. He wants to see the agency split up and restructured, The State reported.

“What we’ve learned in this episode, I think will be instructive in deciding what to do, how to make DHEC function better, whether it’s one agency, two, or perhaps some different fashion,’’ McMaster said, arguing in part that the agency is too large.

Whether DHEC will be broken up is still an open question, but McMaster isn’t the only one discussing it.

Sen. Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, introduced legislation that would split up the department and merge its health division with other agencies, and attach its environmental sections to existing natural resource departments.

Governor ‘frustrated’ with speed of vaccine roll-out

COVID-19 vaccine doses are being distributed too slowly, S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster said Tuesday, threatening to take executive action if the state health department doesn’t speed up the process.

“We are frustrated and we are determined to eliminate the bottlenecks that are slowing this down,” McMaster said, The State reported.

He said South Carolina will not follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines that recommend holding off on phase 2 of the vaccine roll-out until 70% of those in the first phase are inoculated.

Instead, there will be a Jan. 15 deadline for people in the first phase to get vaccinated, or they lose their spot in line, he said.

After COVID recovery, McMaster feels ‘like superman’

McMaster told reporters he feels “like Superman” Tuesday, after recovering from COVID-19.

McMaster recently came out of isolation imposed since he and his wife, Peggy McMaster, tested positive for the coronavirus in late December, The State reported.

“I got just a little tired for a few days,” McMaster said, explaining that he experienced symptoms including cough and fatigue.

McMaster added that his wife is asymptomatic and doing “just fine.”

McMaster lays out plan for $20 million in COVID education aid

Gov. Henry McMaster laid out a new plan for $20 million in federal relief funding for education, after South Carolina’s high court twice rejected his attempts to spend the money on private schools.

McMaster now says $5 million will go toward upgrading technology and tutoring for children in the foster care system, and $7 million for the state’s four-year-old kindergarten program, extending in-person and summer programs for kids considered at-risk.

Finally, $8 million will be invested in the state’s Technical College System to help expand job training programs.

Midlands sheriff and wife test positive for COVID-19

Newberry County Sheriff Lee Foster and his wife have tested positive for the coronavirus, The State reported.

“I pray we survive,” Foster wrote in a Facebook post, though the pair have been experiencing mild symptoms.

Foster, who has been Newberry County sheriff since 1988, tested positive Sunday, and his wife learned her diagnosis Monday, according to the post.

Foster said he caught the virus despite wearing a mask and using hand sanitizer, which doesn’t surprise him, considering his duties as sheriff mean he’s often around large groups.

“It was bound to happen because of my lifestyle,” he said.

Second York County Council member tests positive

Allison Love, a York County Council member, said Monday she has tested positive for the coronavirus.

Love ran unopposed in the 2020 election and was scheduled to be sworn in Monday night. The new plan was for her to be sworn in during a Zoom call, The Rock Hill Herald reported.

“Got tested out of an abundance of caution because my taste and smell is absent and I didn’t want to be around people if I am contagious,” Love wrote in a Facebook post.

Love is the second member of the York County Council to test positive for the virus. Council member William Roddey was hospitalized for a week in September.

Entire women’s homeless shelter quarantined in Myrtle Beach

A women’s homeless shelter in Myrtle Beach is under quarantine after a positive COVID-19 case was confirmed at the facility last week, The Sun News reported.

New Directions said one of the women at the shelter tested positive, and her roommate was also showing symptoms. Both have been moved into a hotel with the help of a New Directions community partner, and the remaining 17 women at the shelter are being quarantined.

The program’s men’s shelter saw its first coronavirus case recently, but there’s no evidence the cases at the two shelters are related, Executive Director Kathy Jenkins said.

“It’s just like everybody else,” she said. “You know, our women are out working. They’re not in isolation. So just like any of the rest of us, they can pick it up anywhere, pick it up at a doctor’s office and in the local 7/11, grocery store or any place else that people go to get the things that they need.”

COVID surge has slowed vaccine rollout, SC officials say

State health officials say the surge in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in recent months is slowing the process of distributing vaccine doses.

As of Monday, South Carolina had administered roughly 33% of the COVID-19 vaccine doses available, The State reported.

Many of the state’s health care systems and facilities are burdened, making it more difficult to handle their duty of vaccinating those currently qualified to receive it, Brannon Traxler, the state Department of Health and Environmental Control’s interim director, said Monday.

Traxler asked the public to follow guidelines put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“It will help remove the burden from our hospitals and other health care providers that they’re currently experiencing, and so that will allow more health care workers to be available to administer vaccines,” Traxler said.

Health officials have so far administered 43,227 doses of Pfizer’s vaccine, out of the 129,675 granted to the state.

State superintendent tests positive for COVID-19

S.C. Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman said Monday she has tested positive for COVID-19.

Spearman said she was tested Dec. 31 and notified of the results on Sunday. South Carolina’s top education official was already in quarantine after her husband and son tested positive last week, The State reported.

“Our family is in good spirits and is fortunate to have only mild symptoms,” Spearman wrote on Twitter.

She plans to continue her work from home, staying in isolation while she recovers.

This story was originally published January 5, 2021 at 6:49 AM with the headline "Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in South Carolina on Jan. 5."