Every day, The Greenville News writes a new live story with the latest COVID-19 news relevant to our communities in the state. This is our COVID-19 news summary for November 12, 2020. We will update this story only until the end of the day.
Map of coronavirus SC: An analysis of COVID-19 cases by county and postal code
Greenville, Spartanburg counties lead South Carolina in COVID-19 cases
DHEC announced 1,339 new confirmed cases and 2 deaths on Sunday, bringing the total number of cases in South Carolina to 184,360 and 3,846 deaths.
Of 8,694 individual test results reported across the state on Saturday, 15.4% percent tested positive.
Greenville County reported 231 new cases, leading the state, while Spartanburg County was responsible for the second highest number of new cases, with 104.
Upstate leads South Carolina in coronavirus cases again
Greenville and Spartanburg again led the daily case count with 275 and 168 cases.
DHEC announced 1,617 new confirmed cases and 9 deaths on Saturday, bringing the total number of cases in South Carolina to 182,943 and 3,844 deaths.
Of the 10,519 individual test results reported across the state yesterday, 15.4% percent were positive.
Coronavirus ‘Unite to Fight’ from Greenville professional sports teams
Blood Connection and three Greenville sports teams – Greenville Drive, Greenville Swamp Rabbits and Greenville Triumph – are joining forces to fight COVID-19.
On Friday, November 20, from 1 pm to 4 pm, at Fluor Field, “Unite to Fight” will culminate with a plasma and whole blood donation event.
Convalescent plasma is plasma collected from someone who has successfully recovered from COVID-19 and, while not a cure, it is one of the most effective ways to treat the virus, officials say.
With so many sports teams hurt by the pandemic, seasons canceled and fans unable to attend, local Greenville professional teams are working to help, said Delisa English, CEO of The Blood Connection.
“I urge everyone to board and participate,” said Todd Mackin, president of Swamp Rabbits.
The Blood Connection is a nonprofit community blood center founded in Greenville that supplies blood to more than 80 hospitals in South Carolina.
Spartanburg hospitals almost full
There are only 12 beds available in Spartanburg hospitals, as COVID-19 continues to cause damage to the upstate, hospital officials announced at a board meeting this week.
“Capacity management remains a concern,” said Dr. Christopher Lombardozzi, medical director of the Spartanburg Regional Health System, to the system’s board of trustees on Wednesday. “We continue to be late, postponing elective surgeries to maintain enough beds to care for all the patients we have.
“If there was a message to the public, please do not postpone preventive care. Please do not postpone seeking care for conditions that you have that are not related to COVID.”
Full story here
McCarthy Teszler from Spartanburg moving to online learning
Officials from District 7 in Spartanburg announced Thursday night that McCarthy Teszler School would transition to fully remote education in the next two weeks due to a series of COVID-19 cases among its employees.
The statement said that in the past two weeks, McCarthy Teszler School, which serves students with special needs in Spartanburg County, had 45 employees quarantined as close contacts for five positive cases. The school has no confirmed cases of students.
Full story here
Here’s what to know on Saturday
- The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control announced 1,348 new confirmed cases and 100 new probable cases of the new coronavirus on Friday, as well as 17 additional confirmed deaths and 1 probable new death.
- Exactly eight months after college basketball was shut down by the coronavirus – while Clemson warmed up on the court to face the state of Florida at the ACC tournament – Tigers coach Brad Brownell spoke on Thursday about how things haven’t changed that much .