GEORGETOWN – The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control announced 90 new cases of COVID-19 in Georgetown County on Friday, setting a maximum of one day for the county.
The total is more than the previous five days in the county – combined. The county’s previous high was 84 cases on July 15.
Consultations in the county to see if there was a single event that caused the surge were not returned immediately.
On Friday, the Georgetown County School District announced that it would go to “remote” instruction when it returned from Winter Holidays, pointing to the potential for more positive cases being discovered during the two weeks off campus.
Georgetown County says its incidence rate soared to 590 on Friday, almost three times what DHEC considers a “high” spread of the COVID-19 virus.
Tidelands Health, which operates the Waccamaw Community Hospital in Murrells Inlet and Georgetown Memorial Hospital, said it now has 107% of the hospital’s capacity and 132% in the ICU occupancy. The hospital has 39 inpatients with COVID-19, with two others awaiting test results.
Horry County Update
North of Georgetown County saw more of the same on Friday, as Horry County continued to see triple numbers in new cases, with DHEC reporting 135 on Friday, leaving the county’s 7-day average at 127.6 and the monthly average at 124.5.
The county has recorded 1,795 cases in the past two weeks, in addition to an incidence rate of 517 per 100,000.
At Conway Medical Center, there are 22 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, with four in the ICU. According to a hospital spokesman, the CMC received an average of 28 inpatients with COVID-19 a day last week.
The CMC has 69 percent of hospital capacity, while it had a positivity rate of 11.57 percent as of December 17.
CMC was the first medical center to administer the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, with hundreds of people already vaccinated.
“We are certainly hopeful that this vaccine will be the game changer we need in the fight against COVID-19. The company’s first data suggest that the vaccine is safe and highly effective,” said Dr. Paul Richardson, chief medical officer of the Police CMC.
“I want to warn you that this is not an overnight solution. It will probably take months for vaccines to be available to the general public. In the meantime, we all need to continue our preventive measures for wearing masks, hand washing and social distance, especially in the coming weeks of vacation. “
The Horry County government announced that there are 33 employees currently unemployed due to positive COVID-19 tests, with an additional 12 employees working remotely while awaiting test results.
Update K-12
Horry County Schools has a total of 165 active cases of COVID-19 – the maximum this school year – and 282 quarantined employees. The district chose not to report students in quarantine.
Meanwhile, according to the GCSD panel COVID-19, there are currently 33 active COVID-19 cases in the district, including 26 students and 7 employees. In addition, 218 students and 56 employees are quarantined.
Carolina Coastal Update
In announcing that it would not have another update of COVID-19 until January 8, the CCU indicated that it had six new cases between December 10 and December 16, including three students.
With students not expected to return until the beginning of the second semester in late January, the university sent a memo to students on Friday that “strongly encourages the COVID-19 viral test before returning to campus.”
CCU indicated that students and staff should take the test 72 hours before their return.
The university also asked students or staff to notify the CCU of a positive test by sending an email to [email protected].
Coastal Carolina has indicated that students who receive a positive test during winter break must complete their isolation requirements before returning to campus.
The CCU was hit by a trio of COVID-19 boxes on its football program on Thursday, causing the Solar Belt Championship scheduled for Saturday at Brooks Stadium to be canceled.
Talk to Nick Masuda at 843-607-0912. Follow him on Twitter at @nickmasudaphoto.