Coronavirus updates for Sept. 21: 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 6,300 COVID cases in SC last week

The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control on Tuesday, Sept. 20, reported 6,343 COVID-19 cases and four coronavirus-related deaths for the week ending Sept. 17. The counts include probable and confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths.

At least 1.7 million coronavirus cases have been reported in South Carolina, and more than 18,300 people have died of the virus since March 2020, according to state health officials.

Data shows COVID-19 cases are down nearly 27% compared with this time last week, with hospitalizations falling about 17%. As of Sept. 17, an average of 382 people in the state were hospitalized with the coronavirus, including 52 patients being treated in intensive care and 17 patients on ventilators, the latest data shows.

The omicron subvariant BA.5 accounted for nearly 82% of coronavirus strains identified in South Carolina for the week of Sept. 3, followed by BA.4.6 (13.6%) and B.1.1.529 (2.9%), according to the latest 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.

Fifty-three percent of South Carolinians eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccine are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and about 61% have received at least one dose, state health data shows.

These SC counties should continue wearing COVID masks, CDC says

Residents in six South Carolina counties are recommended to continue wearing face masks often due to high levels community levels of the COVID-19 virus, The State reported, citing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

Nineteen counties reported medium COVID levels and 21 counties have low levels, according to the CDC’s latest community levels map.

That number has dipped steadily since early August, when 32 counties reported high levels of COVID-19, according to The State.

Read more about community COVID levels here.

Biden declares COVID ‘pandemic is over.’ Here’s what experts say

Public health experts are speaking out after President Joe Biden declared an end to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The pandemic is over,” Biden said during a “60 Minutes” interview on Sunday, Sept. 18. “We still have a problem with COVID. We’re still doing a lotta work on it…but the pandemic is over.”

Some health experts say recent virus data suggests otherwise. In just the last month, there have been more than 2 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and an estimated 12,700 deaths attributed to the virus across the U.S., McClatchy News reported, citing data from Johns Hopkins University.

For example, Dr. Megan Ranney, the dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, pointed to the recent death count and called the president’s assertion “malarkey.”

““Is the pandemic DIFFERENT? Sure,” she wrote on Twitter on Sept. 18. “We have vaccines & infection-induced immunity. We have treatments ... The fatality rate is way down. And so we respond to it differently.”

“But over?! With 400 deaths a day?! she added.

Read the full story here.