By Aug. 4, DHEC projects the state could have over 1,100 deaths from the coronavirus, up from about 360. DHEC’s website no longer notes, as it had, that the projections assume social distancing into June.
“I believe we’re moving in the right direction at exactly the right time,” Gov. Henry McMaster said Tuesday. Statistics from businesses as well as health professionals informed his decision to allow businesses around the state to resume some services, he said.
“We probably had fewer restrictions than any state in the country,” McMaster said. “We have information, facts, statistics from businesses to see what’s happening, we’ve had experience to see what’s happened with other states… we certainly know how to contain it.”
Residents in a trio of Richland County ZIP codes where the coronavirus is most prevalent will have access to nasal swab testing next week, in a partnership between local officials and the Medical University of South Carolina.
“I do think we have the tools and resources necessary to defeat this pandemic, but it takes exactly what we’re doing right now,” state Rep. Ivory Thigpen, D-Columbia, said during a Tuesday press conference at the South Carolina Statehouse.
As of Tuesday evening, South Carolina has documented a total of 6,841 positive tests for the virus, and 296 patients who have died.https://t.co/dZPuCucTcS
— The Post and Courier (@postandcourier) May 5, 2020