SC adds 110 COVID-related deaths in one day, surpassing previous three days combined

South Carolina reported more than 2,100 new COVID-19 cases and 110 more deaths on Tuesday, according to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.

Tuesday’s death toll surpasses the previous three days combined. Since the start of the pandemic last year, 11,828 people have died from the disease.

DHEC said the 2,158 new cases reported Tuesday came from testing completed two days earlier. That brings the state’s COVID-19 case count to nearly 832,000, according to DHEC.

Of the new cases reported on Tuesday, 306 were considered “probable” rather than confirmed.

The state conducted 22,438 COVID-19 tests, with 13% coming back positive.

At least 45.2% of the new cases reported Tuesday were people aged 30 and under.

Children 10 and younger made up 13.9% of the new cases on Tuesday, while 16.2% of the cases were diagnosed in people between the ages of 11 and 20.

At the earlier height of the pandemic between December and February, only 5.8% of positive cases were kids 10 and under.

The Palmetto State continues to trend in the wrong direction, as cases are soaring.

Two weeks ago, South Carolina had its second-highest weekly total of new cases with nearly 38,000. The previous week, there were more than 35,000 new cases. The only higher weekly total was in early January, when the state had more than 40,000 cases. The state hasn’t had fewer than 1,000 new cases on any day since July 24.

The highly contagious delta variant is likely responsible for the majority of new COVID-19 cases in South Carolina, according to state health officials. The exact number of delta cases is unknown because only a fraction of confirmed cases undergo genome sequencing, the process to determine the variant.

There have been 215 deaths — 0.01% of all cases — as of Sept. 17 from “breakthrough” cases, meaning the person was fully vaccinated. The majority of deaths — 65% — are people ages 71 and up. About 65% of those who died had comorbid conditions. And 0.42% of all fully vaccinated people have been infected, while just 0.0361% of fully vaccinated people have been hospitalized.

Health officials recommend wearing a face mask and getting the coronavirus vaccine to help limit the spread of the virus. South Carolina’s vaccination rate is 50.8%, among the lowest in the country.