COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) – Friday, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) reported 245 new cases of the novel coronavirus and three additional deaths.
The total number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in South Carolina is now 9,638 and those who have died to 419.
Included in this article is context on testing, recoveries, hospitalization, death rates and more. That information is provided in detail below the info on new cases announced Friday.
The people who died were elderly (65 and older) and lived in the following counties: Spartanburg (2) and Jasper (1).
New confirmed cases by county as of Friday, May 22:
- Aiken (5)
- Anderson (4)
- Beaufort (8)
- Berkeley (2)
- Charleston (16)
- Cherokee (1)
- Chester (3)
- Chesterfield (10)
- Clarendon (1)
- Colleton (2)
- Darlington (2)
- Dillon (8)
- Dorchester (6)
- Edgefield (1)
- Fairfield (3)
- Florence (11)
- Georgetown (1)
- Greenville (17)
- Greenwood (3)
- Hampton (1)
- Horry (26)
- Jasper (2)
- Kershaw (6)
- Lancaster (4)
- Lee (4)
- Lexington (10)
- Marion (3)
- Marlboro (2)
- McCormick (1)
- Newberry (8)
- Oconee (1)
- Orangeburg (3)
- Pickens (6)
- Richland (28)
- Spartanburg (16)
- Sumter (8)
- Williamsburg (9)
- York (3)
COVID-19 TESTING IN SOUTH CAROLINA
- Negative tests from DHEC Public Health Laboratory – 26,375
- Negative tests from private laboratories – 114,010
- Total negative tests – 140,385*
- Positive tests from DHEC Public Health Laboratory – 3,276
- Positive tests from private laboratories – 11,085
- Total positive tests – 14,361
- Total number of tests performed in South Carolina by DHEC and private labs – 154,746
Total negative tests is the cumulative number of all tests without positive results. This total includes individuals who may have been tested once and individuals who have been tested multiple times.
Total positive tests is different than the total number of positive cases in the state. The number of cases is the number of individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19 at least once. Some of those individuals have been tested multiple times for various reasons, and the total positive tests captures all of the positive tests results in the state. One positive case may have been tested multiple times, with potentially multiple positive results.
TRACKING PERCENT POSITIVE
Percent positive refers to the number of positive COVID-19 cases in relation to the number of tests performed. With the increase in testing statewide, the percentage of positive cases has fallen drastically since the start of the outbreak.
From May 20 to May 21, the percent of positive cases rose slightly.
The following explanation on why the percent positive number is important comes straight from DHEC’s website:
“As South Carolina increases testing, there will likely be more laboratory-confirmed cases. The percent positive graphs show trends in the percent of cases of COVID-19 relative to the number of tests performed during the last 28 and 14 days, respectively. The calculation is a result of the number of positive tests reported in a day (for May 20, 199) divided by the total number of tests performed on that same day by both DHEC’s laboratory and private laboratories (for May 20, 4,836), then multiplied by 100 to get the percent positive (4.1% for May 20).
When the percent positive is high, it may indicate that there isn’t enough testing being performed to capture how much disease is in the community and testing may be focused on people who are more severely ill.
When the percent positive is low, it may indicate that more widespread testing is being performed and the percent positive may more accurately reflect how much disease is present in the community.”
DHEC says as of Friday morning, 429 people are hospitalized due to COVID-19 or are under investigation for the possibility of having the virus. That’s down by nine people from Thursday.
Of all inpatient hospital beds i