FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
August 23, 2020

 

COLUMBIA, S.C. —  The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) today announced 663 new confirmed cases and 33 new probable cases of the novel coronavirus COVID-19, 8 additional confirmed deaths and 4 new probable deaths.

This brings the total number of confirmed cases to 110,658, probable cases to 1,330, confirmed deaths to 2,380, and 124 probable deaths.

Confirmed and probable cases: please click here.
Confirmed and probable deaths: please click here.

More Than 245 Mobile Testing Clinics Scheduled Statewide
Testing for COVID-19 is essential because it helps identify people who are infected with the virus, whether or not they have symptoms, so they can isolate themselves and keep those around them from becoming infected, especially at-risk individuals who can develop life-threatening illness if they contract the virus. Identifying those with COVID-19 who have symptoms helps ensure they receive the medical treatment they need.

DHEC is working with community partners to set up mobile testing clinics and make testing available in communities across the state. Currently, there are 247 mobile testing events scheduled through October 13 with new testing events added regularly. Find a mobile testing clinic event near you at scdhec.gov/covid19mobileclinics.

Residents can visit scdhec.gov/covid19testing for information about getting tested at one of 222 permanent COVID-19 testing facilities across the state.

Testing in South Carolina
As of yesterday, a total of 954,442 tests have been conducted in the state. Through our quality control processes, we’ve identified that the number of tests performed was duplicated on four days: May 1, June 1, July 1 and August 1. Today, we’re removing the duplication of numbers for those four days, which leads to a decrease of approximately 21,000 for the total number of tests performed in the state. This duplication in no way affected the results of tests (positive or negative); the number of tests for those four day were counted twice during a data processing error. The processing issue has been corrected.

See a detailed breakdown of tests in South Carolina on the Data and Projections webpage. DHEC’s Public Health Laboratory is operating extended hours and is testing specimens seven days a week, and the Public Health Laboratory’s current timeframe for providing results to health care providers is 24-48 hours.

Percent Positive
The total number of individual test results reported to DHEC yesterday statewide was 4,450 (not including antibody tests) and the percent positive was 14.9%.

Hospital Bed Occupancy
Since July 22, the federal government has required hospitals nationwide to report data directly to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through a new TeleTracking system, which replaces the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s National Healthcare Safety Network system that had been used initially by hospitals for reporting COVID-19 data.

Hospitals report their information each day to HHS by way of TeleTracking, and that same reporting is also provided to DHEC. Click here to view data from today's TeleTracking report.

COVID-19 Information
For the latest information related to COVID-19 visit scdhec.gov/COVID-19. Visit scdmh.net for stress, anxiety and mental health resources from the S.C. Department of Mental Health.

*As new information is provided to the department, some changes in cases may occur. Cases are reported based on the person’s county of residence, as it is provided to the department. DHEC’s COVID-19 map will adjust to reflect any reclassified cases.

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