Coronavirus updates for Dec. 7: Here’s what to know in South Carolina this week
We’re tracking the most up-to-date information about the coronavirus and vaccines in South Carolina. Check back each week for updates.
More than 6,000 COVID cases in SC last week
The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control on Tuesday, Dec. 6, reported 6,046 COVID-19 cases for the week ending Dec. 3 and five coronavirus-related deaths for the week ending Nov. 26.
The counts include probable and confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths.
An estimated 1.75 million coronavirus cases have been reported in South Carolina, and more than 18,700 people have died of the virus since March 2020, according to state health officials.
According to the DHEC website, it recently began “a two-week delay in COVID-19 death reporting. The weekly reports will include the number of deaths from two weeks prior.”
Data shows COVID-19 cases are up nearly 100% compared with this time last week, with hospitalizations rising nearly 31%. As of Dec. 3, an average of 287 people in the state were hospitalized with the coronavirus, including 37 patients being treated in intensive care and 13 patients on ventilators, the latest data shows.
The omicron subvariant BA.5 accounted for 95% of coronavirus strains identified in South Carolina for the week ending Nov. 19, followed by subvariant BA.4 (2.5%), according to the latest available data. The DHEC’s Public Health Laboratory conducts sequencing on randomly chosen samples as part of nationwide efforts to find out about new strains of the virus, the agency’s website reads.
Nearly 54% of South Carolinians eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccine are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and nearly 62% have received at least one dose, the latest state health data shows.
COVID-induced stress impacts teens’ brains, study says
Stress brought on by the coronavirus pandemic has had physical impacts on teenage brains, causing them to age faster, a new study suggests.
The research, conducted by Stanford University, found that isolation, lockdowns and other COVID-19-related stressors were linked to noticeable affects on teens’ growing brains, McClatchy News reported.
The findings were published Dec. 1 in the journal Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science.
The brains of the teenagers who were studied appeared “several years older” in the wake of the pandemic compared to teenage brains before the pandemic, the report said. For the study, researchers evaluated the MRI brain scans of 81 teens and compared them with the scans of 82 teens after they went through COVID-19 lockdowns.
“This is the first demonstration that difficulties in mental health (for adolescents) during the pandemic are accompanied by what seem to be stress-related changes in brain structure,” lead study author and psychology professor Ian Gotlib told McClatchy News.
To learn more, read the full story here.
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