Flu-like illness fell sharply in South Carolina as positive tests and new patients being admitted to the hospital for influenza also declined, a new report shows. But outbreaks of COVID-19 in nursing homes have increased over the last two weeks, as well, a different report found.
Patients experiencing flu-like illness fell by nearly half from the previous week, 21.7 percent to 11.9 percent, according to the latest data from the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.
The number of positive flu tests dropped 29 percent from the previous week and hospitalizations were down 13 percent, according to a Post and Courier analysis of public health data.
Still, DHEC officials are not ready to declare victory.
“It looks a little better regarding flu, but I would hesitate to call this a trend,” said Dr. Martha Buchanan, lead medical consultant to DHEC.
The latest data, which was for the week that ended Jan. 6, could have been affected by the New Year’s holiday, which can affect reporting. It is hard to know if the flu season has peaked or is leveling off, and infections can always increase again later, Buchanan said. “It’s not uncommon to have more than one spike during flu season,” she said.
The state no longer provides a weekly update on COVID-19 cases but does report outbreaks in schools, nursing homes and day cares. Over the last two weeks, there have been at least 45 COVID-19 outbreaks in South Carolina nursing homes, although the definition for outbreak is one or more cases in a resident or three staff who caught it at the facility.
“It doesn’t take many people to call an outbreak,” Buchanan said, noting it is a federal standard the state has to follow.
There were 24 deaths due to flu for the past week, a 50 percent jump from 16 the previous week, but deaths tend to occur days after infections, so they are a lagging indicator, Buchanan noted.
The state’s trends seem to be borne out in the Charleston hospital of the MUSC Health system, said Dr. Michael Sweat, faculty director of the Center for Global Health at the Medical University of South Carolina. Flu patients in the hospital declined from 22 the previous week to 14 this week, while COVID patients increased from 35 to 40, and emergency room data saw the same trend in patients.
“The pattern to me is flu is bad, but improving, and COVID is going up,” Sweat said.
That trend is also playing out in Trident Health hospitals across the Lowcountry, said Dr. Jane Appleby, the chief medical officer. “We’ve had a dip in our positive testing, a pretty good drop, and the same with the number of folks in the hospital for influenza,” she said. “We have had a little uptick in COVID admissions,” but most are actually in the hospital for something else and tested positive for COVID. There has been an increase in COVID infections among staff, though most are not serious and it has not affected operations,” Appleby said.
Even with less flu misery, it is still a good idea to practice good preventive measures: washing hands frequently, covering coughs and sneezes, and staying home when sick, Buchanan said. And getting the shots, she added. “(We) really want people to consider getting a flu vaccine and a COVID vaccine,” Buchanan said. “They are both very effective and very safe and very available in our community.”
South Carolina had been leading the country in flu rate, but the rest of the country is now experiencing high rates of flu, and Appleby was optimistic the early leaders may be on the way down now. “It kind of feels like we’ve hit the peak in this area,” she said. “So perhaps we are going to start earlier than the rest of the country and peak earlier.”
