Covid-19 numbers are declining in South Carolina, DHEC Director expects calm period ahead

Covid-19 numbers are declining in the Palmetto State in the last couple weeks and this is another confirmation that the Omicron peak is behind us.

According to the date released by DHEC, the number of cases in South Carolina over the last week is down 45% Wednesday from the week before, and 65% from two weeks ago.

The same applies to the number of hospitalizations. According to the DHEC’s Covid-19 data, the number of people hospitalized due to Covid-19 is decreasing in hospitals across the state.

“Hopeful for at least a period of time where we have a number of folks with some natural immunity and vaccination-induced immunity, maybe seeing a little bit of calm,” South Carolina’s Public Health Director, Dr. Brannon Traxler said during a meeting with journalists Wednesday.

“While I am always optimistic and certainly am hopeful, for an improved spring, it is not only dependent on us coming down off the surge in South Carolina,” Traxler said.

Dr. Traxler’s expectations stem from the recent decreasing trend, but also from recent Johns Hopkins University’s. According to results of the study released earlier this month, unvaccinated people who recover can have antibodies for up to 20 months.

Although the study is promising and opens the way to ending the pandemic, researchers noted that new variants might evade the current immunity these people have.

Dr. Traxler also noted the same saying that ‘while people in South Carolina play a role in the level of COVID infection in the months ahead, the rest of the world has not come down from their surge yet, and travel threatens new variants.’

“Any time the virus is being transmitted more, it allows it to mutate more,” she said.

During the meeting with the journalists, Dr. Traxler announced the very first known Omicron subvariant cases discovered in South Carolina. Two people tested positive on the new subvariant which is less transmissible than Omicron, but it doesn’t cause more severe condition.

While Omicron might finally be the turning point of the pandemic, Dr. Traxler once again urged South Carolinians to get vaccinated claiming that the only way to end the pandemic depends on the number of people who will have Covid-19 immunity.