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SC passes 13,000 COVID deaths since start of pandemic

It's the third milestone the state's reached in COVID deaths in the last two months.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Over 13,000 people have now died from coronavirus in South Carolina, as the state comes out of one of the deadliest stretches of the pandemic.

The latest statistics from the state's health agency, SCDHEC, shows there have been 13,034 total COVID-related deaths as of Monday, October 11. 

Like many other parts of the country, the state has been in the midst of a large rise in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths over the summer. That rise has lead to a sharp increase in fatalities related to the virus. 

On August 11, the state hit 10,000 total deaths. But the rate of deaths began to accelerate in the weeks before that mark and after, with the time it took to reach an additional 1,000 deaths shrinking. 

August 11 - 10,000 total deaths reached

September 9 - 11,000 deaths (29 days) 

September 24 - 12,000 deaths (15 days) 

October 11 - 13,000 deaths (17 days) 

The first virus-related death in the state was reported back on March 15, 2020. The number of deaths rose in the following months, but spiked in the summer of 2020, with the state seeing over 1,000 deaths in July and August of that year. After a dip in the fall, the number of deaths accelerated in the winter surge, with over 2,100 deaths in January alone.  

But as vaccines rolled out, the numbers began to drop dramatically. By June, there were just under 100 deaths, with another 111 in July, based on an analysis of DHEC data by WLTX. (Both numbers were the lowest seen since March of 2020). But things swung dramatically in the other direction in August as the Delta variant of the virus surged and hospitals filled up with seriously ill patients.   

There has been a sharp trend in the other direction, however, in recent weeks. Daily coronavirus cases, which were eclipsing 5,000 and 6,000 cases in late August and early September, have been steadily below 2,000 cases for the last week. And hospitalizations are dropping as well, although they remain significantly higher than they'd been throughout the late spring and early summer. 

Experts at SCDHEC, Prisma Health, MUSC, and Lexington Medical Center are united in saying the only way out of the pandemic is to get vaccinated. 

Vaccinations are available for ages 12 and up at many locations across the state. Visit DHEC’s information page for more information on the vaccines, and the locator page to schedule a vaccine appointment.   

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