More than 200,000 South Carolinians have been confirmed to have contracted COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The initial news came over the weekend as Palmetto State residents enjoyed Thanksgiving with family and friends in what many believe may signal the trigger of a surge on top of a surge.
On Monday, state officials reported 1,174 new cases of coronavirus for a total of 202,422 cases since the beginning of the year. Through Monday, 4,077 people in the Palmetto State have died from the virus. That’s more people than live in Manning, population 3,875, which is the county seat of Clarendon County.
South Carolina’s positivity rate — the number of people who test positive — remains in dangerous double-digit territory. On Monday, 18% of the 6,514 people tested were positive.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, “a high percent positive means that more testing should probably be done—and it suggests that it is not a good time to relax restrictions aimed at reducing coronavirus transmission. Because a high percentage of positive tests suggests high coronavirus infection rates (due to high transmission in the community), a high percent positive can indicate it may be a good time to add restrictions to slow the spread of disease.
“As a rule of thumb, however, one threshold for the percent positive being “too high” is 5%.”
This story originally ran on Charleston Currents.
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