SALUDA, SC (WIS) – COVID-19 test data helps health officials determine when, how and where COVID-19 spreads in South Carolina.
On Monday, Saluda County Emergency Management Director Josh Morton said the lack of data is making it difficult to locate the virus in the community.
On Monday night, the state Department of Health and Environmental Control reported 335 tests for every 1,000 residents in the county. This is the lowest rate in the state.
The highest rate comes to 795.3 tests per 1,000 residents in neighboring McCormick County.
“In the beginning, the first test site we had, we had cars paralyzed for probably a quarter mile, waiting to get in when we opened that morning. In the last several major test sites we had, they averaged just a few cars an hour, ”he said.
Morton said access to testing is not the problem, residents are not testing themselves as regularly as neighboring counties.
Carolina Health Centers operates two clinics in the county, both offering COVID-19 tests.
The centers’ director of operations, Miriam Ferguson, said there were many testing opportunities early in the pandemic, and she did not realize that it had declined.
On Monday, the DHEC website listed only three test sites in Saluda County, none of which was a mobile test site.
“If you really want to know what’s going on with the community, mobile testing and mass testing is where it is,” she said.
The number of COVID-19 cases in Saluda County has increased since mid-November, with DHEC registering 830 cases and 27 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
“It’s a little bit dubious now, because we are right after Thanksgiving, entering the holidays where people are gathering, where families are gathering and you are concerned about the spread,” Hardee Horne, risk manager for Saluda County said.
Neighboring Newberry County is also a concern for Saluda County leadership. It has the second highest rate of COVID-19 per capita in the state.
“As you know, we are a very rural county with a very small economy, and many people travel outside the county on business, and this is a route for the virus to return to the county,” said Morton.
County leaders encouraged residents to take the test if they are concerned about exposure.
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