note: This is a developing story that will be updated throughout the day with the latest news on the coronavirus pandemic and its effects in upstate South Carolina.
Map of coronavirus SC: An analysis of COVID-19 cases by county and postal code
Furman requires all students on campus to take the COVID-19 test
Furman University is requiring all students to take the COVID-19 test after an outbreak among students who attended home parties two weeks ago.
The university notified students and families about the mandatory tests in an email sent on Thursday.
Freshmen and veterans, who returned to campus from August 12-15, will have a scheduled time to test for the virus on Friday. Second-year and third-year students, who are expected to return between September 11th and 13th, will have to provide the university with a negative test before they can return to campus.
Full story here
DHEC announces 1,084 new cases, 12 confirmed deaths
DHEC announced on Thursday 1,084 new confirmed cases and 29 new probable cases of the new coronavirus COVID-19, 12 additional confirmed deaths and a new probable death.
Greenville has the highest number of new cases, (113) compared to the rest of SC counties.
This brings the total number of confirmed cases to 119,822 probable cases to 1,874, confirmed deaths to 2,667 and 140 probable deaths.
DHEC also cleared up a misunderstanding around the recently released data from the United States Centers for Disease and Prevention Control on deaths associated with COVID-19.
Provisional death data updated by the CDC last week shows that for 6% of COVID-19 deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause of death mentioned. The remaining 94% of deaths occurred among people with other underlying diseases or contributors, but COVID-19 was still a factor.
The cause of death, as listed on a death certificate, includes an immediate cause, intermediate causes, basic cause and contributing conditions.
A common example of a cause of death involving COVID-19 would be acute respiratory distress syndrome as the immediate cause of death, which is the final condition that caused death. The intermediate cause of death would have been pneumonia, with COVID-19 as the basic cause of death. The basic cause of death is the condition that leads, through intermediate causes, to the immediate cause of death, according to DHEC.
The contributing factors may have been asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes or any other illness or condition that may have made the condition that caused the death worse than it should have.
As COVID-19 changes everything, bands in the north of the state discover that their purpose is not
It was never about music.
This year made it very clear that the march part and the band part are not the most important things about the band.
The coronavirus canceled the competitive season and, although there is no cancellation of friendships, bandwidth remotely and practicing on Zoom will never be the same as weeks of in-person practice and that normal bond.
The high school band has always been about students connecting, said Adam Scheuch, director of the band program at Mauldin High School, the largest of its kind in the state’s largest school district.
Read the story.
Insults and fines: SC restaurants comply with the governor’s COVID-19 laws
Some restaurants in South Carolina are not following the governor’s rules and have been penalized.
Early last week, Neil Rodgers, the owner of Ike’s Korner Grille in Spartanburg, told the Herald-Journal that he doesn’t need masks.
After the article was published, the dive bar on Archer Road received a visit from the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office and the SC Law Enforcement Division (SLED). Both issued a written warning on August 27. The next day, both agencies came back to distribute quotes – a $ 100 fine from each.
Read the story.