South Carolina Notes

When South Carolina reports no data, several days of data, or unusual data (such as decreases in values that should increase), our volunteers note it here on the date the anomaly occurred. We also note here changes in our own methodology that affect the data.

Negative test results reported in our API and CSVs are calculated by subtracting Confirmed cases from Total PCR tests (specimens) in the absence of better data.

On March 6, 2021, South Carolina’s data on individuals with symptom onset data decreased by roughly 31,000 without explanation. As a result, their Recovered, which is calculated as individuals with symptom onset data multiplied by the percentage of these cases which are recovered, decreased by about 12,000.

From February 23, 2021 through March 5, 2021, South Carolina’s Recovered metric was absent from their data dashboard, potentially due to technical issues. As a result, we are unable to update their Recovered on these dates.

On February 23, 2021, South Carolina’s testing and recovery data was not available from their dashboard due to “technical issues” As a result, we were unable to update their testing data on February 23, 2021.

On February 5, 2021, South Carolina announced via the official South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control twitter that roughly 29,000 positive and negative test results from December 22, 2020 through January 16, 2021 would be included in their data. This backlog will account for approximately 23,000 Negative PCR tests (specimens) and 3500 cases reported on February 5, 2021.

On February 1, 2021, South Carolina announced via the official South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental control twitter that due to a vital statistics system update, they were reporting over 240 Deaths (confirmed + probable) from the last several weeks. As a result, not all new deaths reported on February 1, 2021 were identified in the previous 24 hour period.

On January 28, 2021, South Carolina announced via the official South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental control twitter that due to a vital statistics system update, they were reporting over 230 Deaths (confirmed + probable) from the last several weeks. As a result, not all new deaths reported on January 28, 2021 were identified in the previous 24 hour period.

On January 11, 2021 through January 15, 2021, South Carolina experienced an internal systems issue which has resulted in data missing from their dashboard. We urge caution when interpreting their data from this period, and encourage the use of 7 and 14-day averages as more reliable figures than individual metrics.

On December 21, 2020, South Carolina announced via the official South Carolina Public Health and Environmental Protection Agency twitter, that there would be no update to their data on December 25, 2020, or on January 1, 2021 due to the holidays. Additionally, they noted that the data for December 26, 2020 and January 2, 2021 would each include two days of data.

On December 20, 2020, South Carolina noted that their Currently hospitalized figure was larger than normal due to an error in facilities reporting. Their Currently hospitalized increased from 1461 to 1471.

On November 25, 2020, South Carolina announced via the official South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control twitter that there would be no update to their data on November 26, 2020.

On September 15, 2020, South Carolina started reporting antigen testing data, reporting 7,763 positive tests and 23,477 total tests. Its “viral (i.e. molecular/PCR) tests” positives and totals dropped by about the same amount, likely due to the removal of this data.

Between August 25 and September 21, 2020, South Carolina did not provide updated estimates of the number of Recovered cases.

On September 10, 2020, South Carolina announced that it added a large number of saliva tests from the University of South Carolina to its data, causing an unusually large number of cases in the data for September 11.

On August 23, 2020, South Carolina corrected a double-counting of testing numbers from the months May–August. This resulted in a significant drop of all aspects of testing-related counts, with Total PCR tests (specimens) dropping by approximately 22,000 and total antibody tests dropping by 1,500.

On August 14, 2020, South Carolina reported an unusually large number of tests without explanation.

On July 18, 2020, South Carolina announced it was transitioning to new reporting systems and that "there may be incomplete data with significant gaps." Though reporting resumed July 28, 2020, this resulted in data being carried over at times. We will backfill with the updated numbers when they are available.

As of June 11, 2020, South Carolina reports PCR tests separately from antibody tests. Total test numbers were reduced by around 22,000 as a result of this change.