101 newly confirmed cases in COVID ‘Hot Spot’ Horry includes 8 in Loris area; 8 more in Columbus includes four in TC area

By DEUCE NIVEN

tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com

     An explosive rise in the count of Horry County residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 reached its highest point yet Saturday, with 101 laboratory confirmed cases bringing the total to 1,037 since the pandemic began.

     Meanwhile there were eight newly confirmed cases in Columbus County Saturday, bringing the total to 415.

     Data for both counties came from state agencies, Columbus from North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services, Horry from South Carolina’s Department of Health and Environmental Control.

     Columbus County Health Department recently stopped providing daily updates, moving to a twice weekly release each Monday and Thursday. Data from the county and the state on any specific day may not match because of differences in the timing of entering that data.

     Horry County data has been exclusively provided by DHEC since the pandemic began.

     Horry County is one of several South Carolina areas described as “hot spots” for the coronavirus earlier this week because of rapidly rising positive tests results that seem to reflect more than just statistical increases expected as testing has become more widespread.

     Zip Code data Saturday showed the Loris area with eight newly confirmed COVID cases, Green Sea holding steady with 11 cases.

     Zip Code data showed Tabor City with 99 cases Saturday, up by four from Friday; Chadbourn and Riegelwood each with two newly confirmed cases, those totals not 72 and 18 respectively.

Carolinas

     Both Carolinas continued to show steep increases in COVID test results, worrisome hospitalization numbers, and new deaths from the disease, new data Saturday showed.

     North Carolina’s confirmed case total rose by 1,427 Saturday to 42,676 since the pandemic began, with 12 new deaths bringing that total to 1,104 and 823 people requiring hospital care for COVID symptoms, that number up by 63 from Friday.

     South Carolina’s case count Saturday was 17,955, up by 785 from Friday, with six deaths bringing that total to 599 and 523 people in the hospital because of the coronavirus, an increase of 11 from Friday.

Updates

     Look for continuing coverage on local impacts from the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak here and in the Tabor-Loris Tribune in print and online.