FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
September 1, 2020

COLUMBIA, S.C. — This week, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) will begin providing twice-weekly reports on the number COVID-19 cases associated with staff and students at public and private schools in the state.

This school reporting will include for every school both cumulative and rolling 30-day counts of confirmed cases among students, teachers and faculty members, and will be updated on DHEC’s COVID-19 webpage on Tuesday and Friday afternoons. The first reports will be available this Friday, Sep. 4.

Key points about this new data include:

• The reporting does not mean that students, faculty or staff contracted the virus at school
  • Unlike a nursing home, where residents live at the facility, students, teachers and faculty come and go from school and are active in their community and could come into contact with the virus outside of a school setting.
• The reporting will include kindergarten through 12th grade students in private and public schools
  • At this time, college students will not be captured in these reports, although several colleges and universities are choosing to announce cases on their websites. Students residing in South Carolina to go to school are included in South Carolina’s daily numbers, reported out by county based on current address.
• Only those individuals who physically attend school on a regular basis will be included in the counts
  • Sports coaches, tutors, part-time employees, kitchen staff, custodial and maintenance workers and other school employees with a physical presence in schools will be included in these reports. Those students who participate in virtual instruction but are on campus regularly for extracurricular activities will also be included. 
• Some schools may choose to self-announce cases before they are reflected in DHEC’s twice-weekly reports
  • There may be in a delay in what cases are included in DHEC’s online reporting, as the agency works to receive the information, review it and confirm it before presenting it online

To view the school cases lists, which will first be available this Friday, visit scdhec.gov/COVID19schools.

Latest COVID-19 Update

DHEC today announced 761 new confirmed cases and 31 new probable cases of the novel coronavirus COVID-19, 37 additional confirmed deaths and no new probable deaths.

This brings the total number of confirmed cases to 118,116, probable cases to 1,730, confirmed deaths to 2,626, and 131 probable deaths.

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

More Than 475 Testing Opportunities Available 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 254 mobile testing events scheduled through October 17 and there are 229 permanent COVID-19 testing facilities across the state. Find a testing clinic or event near you at scdhec.gov/covid19testing.

Testing in South Carolina
As of yesterday, a total of 1,018,379 tests have been conducted in the state. 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 3,396 (not including antibody tests) and the percent positive was 22.4%.

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.

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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