Staff reports | On Monday, the Charleston County School District voted to immediately lift its mask requirements for students, staff and visitors in all buildings and on buses. The policy was set to expire March 14, but the CCSD board cited new guidance from The Centers Disease Control in their 8-1 decision. That guidance said that counties with medium level infection rates – Charleston is at this level currently – do not need to mask indoors unless they are immunocompromised or at a high risk for severe illness.
The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) today also began scaling back the number of agency-operated COVID-19 testing sites in the state. The reduction in testing sites comes as the nation and state continue to transition out of a pandemic into an endemic and public health experts continue to update their guidance on how to safely live with the pandemic. More than 20 testing sites in the Lowcountry will be closed: four in Beaufort County, four in Berkeley County, nine in Charleston County, one in Colleton County, one in Dorchester County and three in Georgetown County.
DHEC will end reporting daily case counts on March 15 due to unreportable at-home testing becoming more and more widespread. Deaths and hospitalizations due to COVID-19 will still be reported, but only on a weekly basis.
Latest COVID-19 data
South Carolina health officials on Tuesday reported 299 total new cases of COVID-19, with 227 confirmed, and 48 new deaths, with 37 confirmed.
With 4,491 test results reported Tuesday, 5.6% were confirmed positive.
- Percentage of S.C. residents age 12+ with at least one vaccine: 67.5%
- Percentage of S.C. residents age 12+ who have completed vaccination: 58.1%
- Percentage of S.C. residents age 5-11 with at least one vaccine: 18.6%
- Percentage of S.C. residents age 5-11 who have completed vaccination: 14.5%
For more information, visit the S.C. SCDHEC COVID-19 dashboard.
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