Sunday ended the deadliest week for the new coronavirus in South Carolina, state estimates show.
Twenty-three new deaths from COVID-19 were confirmed on Sunday, with more than 460 confirmed deaths in the past seven days alone – making last week the deadliest for the new virus in the state so far, data from the US Department of Health show. state.
Overall, South Carolina has had more than 6,300 deaths since the pandemic began, the data show.
In addition, the state saw more than 2,600 new cases of the new virus confirmed on Sunday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to more than 396,000.
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The trends seen in South Carolina seem to echo across the country, with recent estimates by Johns Hopkins University showing that January has been the deadliest month for the United States since the pandemic began almost a year ago.
The news comes after South Carolina confirmed last week the first cases in the country of a worrisome coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa.
Two cases of the variant, known as B.1.351, were identified in two residents with no recent travel history, suggesting that they were acquired locally.
Health officials in a press release said they were contacted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) after the genome sequencing of a South Carolina sample was the variant.
“The arrival of the SARS-CoV-2 variant in our state is an important reminder to all Southern Carolinians that the fight against this deadly virus is far from over,” said the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control ( DHEC) Interim Public Health Director, Dr. Brannon Traxler, at the time.
Over the weekend, Maryland became the second state in the country to confirm its first case of the variant.
The case was confirmed in a Baltimore resident with no history of overseas travel, which suggests that the variant is likely to be circulating in the community, said Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s office.
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Although experts say the South African variant is more transmissible than COVID-19, they do not think it is more virulent, meaning that it is no longer likely to cause more serious illness.
Experts also emphasized that existing coronavirus vaccines are likely to remain effective against the variant, with Moderna – its COVID-19 jab was the second to see US emergency approval – expressing confidence in its vaccine’s ability to remain effective against emerging strains of the virus, including the South African variant and a separate variant first identified in the UK, following the results of a study not yet peer-reviewed.
Fox News’ Kayla Rivas and Alexandria Hein contributed to this report.