COLUMBIA, SC (WBTW) – Gov. McMaster issued a new order on Friday that requires a mandatory quarantine for people coming into the state from “hot spots” around the country.
Those hot spots are New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and the city of New Orleans. “There will be a criminal penalty for failure to comply,” McMaster said.
DHEC announced four new deaths related to the COVID-19 novel coronavirus. This brings the state’s total number of deaths to 13.
The patients, who were all elderly and had underlying health conditions, were from Florence, Richland, Kershaw and Greenville counties.
DHEC also is investigating 86 additional cases of COVID-19. Three previously reported cases were determined during case investigations to be residents of other states. This brings the total number statewide to 539 cases in 39 counties.
The number of new cases by county are listed below.
- Aiken County: 2 cases
- Beaufort County: 6 cases
- Berkeley County: 2 cases
- Charleston County: 32 cases
- Chesterfield County: 1 case
- Clarendon County: 1 case
- Colleton County: 1 case
- Dorchester County: 5 cases
- Florence County: 6 cases
- Horry County: 3 cases
- Kershaw County: 6 cases
- Lancaster County: 1 case
- Lexington County: 5 cases
- Oconee County: 1 case
- Orangeburg County: 1 case
- Pickens County: 1 case
- Richland County: 5 cases
- Spartanburg County: 7 cases
“Yesterday we reported on a shortage of chemicals needed to perform testing on COVID-19 nationwide, and within South Carolina, including at our DHEC public health laboratory,” said epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell. “But since that time, our innovative public health laboratory team has been able to recreate a component of our extraction supplies that was on backorder and resume testing late yesterday.”
“The vendor supply arrived this morning and currently the public health lab is working through a backlog of approximately 1800 samples waiting to be tested,” Bell added.
DHEC’s COVID-19 webpage is updated daily with a map of positive cases as well as the most current recommendations for protecting against COVID-19.
Individuals with signs of illness should stay at home and away from other people. All South Carolinians are encouraged to monitor for symptoms, practice social distancing and stay home as much as possible, avoid touching frequently touched items, and regularly wash their hands.