Sunday ended the deadliest week for the novel coronavirus in South Carolina.
Twenty-three new deaths due to COVID-19 were confirmed on Sunday, with more than 460 deaths confirmed in just the past seven days – making last week the deadliest for the new virus in the state so far, data from the department of health.
Overall, South Carolina has seen more than 6,300 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
In addition, the state on Sunday confirmed more than 2,600 new cases of the new virus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to more than 396,000.
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The trends seen in South Carolina seem to reflect the nationwide, with recent estimates by Johns Hopkins University showing that January was the deadliest month for the U.S. since the pandemic began nearly a year ago.
The news comes after South Carolina last week confirmed the country’s first cases of a worrying coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa.
Two cases of the variant, known as B.1.351, were identified in two residents with no recent travel history, indicating that they were obtained locally.
Health officials said in a news release that they are being contacted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) after it was found that the genome sequence of a sample in South Carolina is the variant.
“The arrival of the SARS-CoV-2 variant in our state is an important reminder to all South Carolinians that the fight against this deadly virus is far from over,” the Department of Health’s interim public health said. and Environmental Control (DHEC) said. At the time director, dr. Brannon Traxler.
Over the weekend, Maryland became the second state in the country to confirm its first case of the variant.
The case was confirmed in a Baltimore resident with no travel history abroad, suggesting the variant is likely to be spreading in the community, said Maryland Hogan, Maryland office.
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Although experts have said that the South African variant is more transmissible than COVID-19, they do not think it is more virulent, which means that it is no longer prone to cause serious diseases.
Experts have also stressed that existing coronavirus vaccines are likely to remain effective against the variant, with Moderna – the COVID-19 insert being the second to see emergency approval in the US – expressing confidence in its vaccine’s ability to remain effective against emerging strains of the virus. , including the South African variant and a separate variant first identified in the United Kingdom, following the results of a further peer-reviewed study.
Fox News’ Kayla Rivas and Alexandria Hein contributed to this report.