FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 5, 2020

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) today announced 1,175 new confirmed cases and 23 new probable cases of the novel coronavirus COVID-19, 45 additional confirmed deaths and 5 new probable deaths. This brings the total number of confirmed cases to 94,837 probable cases to 635, confirmed deaths to 1,819, and 75 probable deaths.

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

Testing in South Carolina As of yesterday, a total of 804,195 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 5,679 (not including antibody tests) and the percent positive was 20.7%.

More Than 115 Mobile Testing Clinics Scheduled Statewide As part of our ongoing efforts to increase testing in underserved and rural communities across the state, DHEC is working with community partners to set up mobile testing clinics that bring testing to these communities. Currently, there are 117 mobile testing events scheduled through September 29 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 224 permanent COVID-19 testing facilities across the state.

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 by hospitals for reporting data throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, the TeleTracking system asks hospitals to report all of their available beds as one total number, not broken down by bed type as the NHSN system had. Therefore, hospitals’ total number of beds reported includes pediatric beds, neonatal intensive care unit (ICU) bassinets, psychiatric beds, labor and delivery beds, rehabilitation beds and others. As a practical matter, not all of these bed types could be used for caring for adult patients hospitalized with COVID-19, or other medical issues.

DHEC is working with the S.C. Hospital Association to create a new process for gathering inpatient bed availability and occupancy from each hospital in the state, as this is the reporting metric that best provides the number of hospital beds available for caring for adult COVID-19 patients. We plan to have a more defined reporting system in place in the coming days.

As we continue to refine hospital bed data, with the TeleTracking system now implemented by South Carolina hospitals, DHEC is able to resume reporting of the following key information:

• ICU beds: 1,443 total; 311 available; 1,132 in use (78.45% utilization rate)
• COVID-19 patients hospitalized: 1,469; 363 in ICU; 270 ventilated

*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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