Columbia Standard

COVID-19 hospitalizations in South Carolina tripled over the course of three weeks from mid-July into August, and deaths surpassed 10,000, according to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.

WYFF4-TV on MSN.com reported that in mid-June, COVID-19 cases were in the double digits but that quickly shifted for the worse. 

“The COVID 19 pandemic is reaching highs that South Carolina has only experience once before, in January, our apex to this date," Dr. Linda Bell, state epidemiologist, said in a YouTube video. 

"I have never been more concerned about the health of our state than I am at this time," Bell told WYFF4-TV on MSN.com.

In mid-June, Bell says daily COVID-19 case numbers were dropping to the double digits, but that that quickly changed in mid-July with the arrival of the highly contagious delta variant. 

"Instead of these double-digit cases, we are now seeing thousands of cases a day," Bell told WYFF4-TV on MSN.com. 

WYFF4-TV on MSN.com reported that state health officials found that since July 1, the percentage of those vaccinated in the state increased by 8.5%, with 53% having received at least one dose and 45.3% fully vaccinated.

After the state saw its second-worst day of daily cases since the beginning of the pandemic, Bell encourages those who are eligible to receive the vaccine do so right away.

"Waiting longer to consider whether or not to get vaccinated will have a significant cost for more people," Bell said.