A possibloe oversight in a state health report yesterday was frightening.

The SC Department of Health and Environmental Control reported 56 covid-19 deaths yesterday.

What DHEC did not report was that all but 12 deaths were in delayed reports going back to July 3.

DHEC today announced 39 additional confirmed deaths and 26 new probable deaths.

DHEC did not say over what period of time these deaths occured.

The Chronicle has asked DHEC officials for an explanation.

DHEC also reported today 1,654 new confirmed cases and 1 new probable case.

This brings confirmed cases to 74,761, probable cases to 281, confirmed deaths to 1,203, and 25 probable deaths.

That means only .014% of the state's estimated 5.2 miullion residents have been infected.

it also means that of those infected, .016 have died – and 99.98% have not.

Confirmed cases: Abbeville (5), Aiken (35), Allendale (3), Anderson (32), Bamberg (6), Barnwell (5), Beaufort (84), Berkeley (71), Calhoun (6), Charleston (190), Cherokee (16), Chester (19), Chesterfield (15), Clarendon (14), Colleton (24), Darlington (32), Dillon (7), Dorchester (78), Edgefield (9), Fairfield (2), Florence (44), Georgetown (18), Greenville (103), Greenwood (8), Hampton (3), Horry (103), Jasper (17), Kershaw (17), Lancaster (28), Laurens (38), Lee (6), Lexington (89), Marion (7), Marlboro (4), Newberry (41), Oconee (8), Orangeburg (48), Pickens (14), Richland (173), Saluda (3), Spartanburg (86), Sumter (68), Union (14), Williamsburg (6), York (55)

Probable: Aiken (2), Calhoun (1), Charleston (3), Cherokee (3), Clarendon (1), Dorchester (3), Florence (1), Greenwood (2), Jasper (1), Laurens (4), Lexington (1), Orangeburg (1), Richland (2)

Please click here for the county of residence and age group of the 39 individuals whose deaths are reported today.

Testing in South Carolina
As of yesterday, a total of 659,541 tests have been conducted in the state. See a detailed breakdown of tests in South Carolina on the Data and Projections webpage. DHEC’s Public Health Laboratory is operating extended hours and is testing specimens seven days a week, and the Public Health Laboratory’s current timeframe for providing results to health care providers is 24-48 hours.

Percent Positive Test Trends among Reported COVID-19 Cases
The total number of individual test results reported to DHEC yesterday statewide was 8,574 (not including antibody tests) and the percent positive was 19.3%.

More than 70 Mobile Testing Clinics Scheduled Statewide
As part of our ongoing efforts to increase testing in underserved and rural communities across the state, DHEC is working with community partners to set up mobile testing clinics that bring testing to these communities. Currently, there are 74 mobile testing events scheduled through August 15 with new testing events added regularly. Find a mobile testing clinic event near you at scdhec.gov/covid19mobileclinics.

Residents can also get tested at one of 182 permanent COVID-19 testing facilities across the state. Visit scdhec.gov/covid19testing for more information.

Hospital Bed Occupancy
Per federal requirements, hospitals are actively transitioning between the systems used for reporting hospital bed and ICU occupancy, ventilator usage, patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and other key information. DHEC issued a Public Health Order supporting this transition on July 15, the day after the announcement was made that hospitals will transition from using the CDC's National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) to the TeleTracking system.

While hospitals across the state work to implement the new federal reporting system, DHEC is able to report limited hospital bed occupancy information through the Bed Availability Report Tracking (BART) state database. BART doesn't provide the same level of detail as the previously used NHSN system but allows DHEC to maintain surveillance of hospital occupancy and usage until the TeleTracking system is fully implemented and used by hospitals statewide.

Based on information from BART, which is estimated to be accurate within 10%, as of yesterday, 9,961 hospital beds are in use (86.7% occupancy) and 1,522 are available. Of those hospitalized,1,607 are COVID-19 patients.