ICU beds are filling up in SC as COVID surges. This map shows how your area is faring

South Carolina is in the midst of the worst COVID-19 surge it has seen since the start of the pandemic, and with new cases and hospitalizations on the rise, are ICUs across the state ready to shoulder the burden?

Some hospitals are already out of ICU beds, and others aren’t far behind, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The data sheds light on how individual hospitals are faring. Previously, only statewide data was available.

“When data are aggregated at county or state level, the average across all facilities can mask what is happening at each local hospital,” the HHS said. “Using this new data, the public will have access to hospital-specific COVID-19 numbers to understand hyper-localized community impacts.”

A look at SC hospitals

Hospitals in the town of Seneca are at 99% ICU capacity, the hardest hit in the state, according to a New York Times analysis of the HHS data, as of Wednesday.

Beaufort is next, at 95% capacity, with just one of the town’s 12 ICU beds open.

In Georgetown, 10 of the 11 beds available at local hospitals are occupied.

Kingstree has three of four beds filled.

Conway is at 93% capacity, with patients filling 26 beds out of 28 available.

Aiken stands at 85% full, according to the HHS data.

All but one of South Carolina’s largest metro areas — Columbia, Charleston, Greenville, Myrtle Beach, Florence, and Spartanburg — are at, or well above, 80% capacity.

Charleston is the outlier among them, and has nearly a third of its 189 beds open.

Myrtle Beach has 65 ICU beds, of which seven are empty.

Nearby Florence is in a similar position, with 97 of its 112 beds taken.

Spartanburg has filled up to 88%, followed by Columbia at 83%, and Greenville at 81%.

While ICUs tend to operate at near capacity under normal circumstances, that’s not something hospitals want to do during a pandemic, as a sudden spike in COVID-19 cases could mean there’s nowhere to put new patients who need help, McClatchy News previously reported.

The big picture

As of Thursday, nearly 80% of all ICU beds in South Carolina are currently filled, according to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.

Coronavirus hospitalizations are up 60% from a month ago, The State reported. A quarter of the 1,232 coronavirus patients are in ICUs, and one in 10 are on a ventilator.

As of Thursday, officials reported roughly 15,000 new COVID-19 cases in the last seven days, alarming state leaders and health experts.

“That many cases in a single week makes this last week the worst it has been for us since the beginning of the pandemic,” state epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell said at a Wednesday news conference.

Hospital officials also pleaded with the public to exercise caution and to follow guidelines for preventing coronavirus spread, now more than ever.

“We recognize that it is a difficult time for all,” said Dr. Stephen Shelton of Prisma Health. “Most of us recognize the fun times we’ve had with large gatherings with family and friends. However, we need to reflect on those that we put at risk for that.”

Though new cases and hospitalizations continue to rise, deaths haven’t grown in lockstep —-- but experts warn that may still happen, as fatalities tend to lag behind coronavirus spikes.

This story was originally published December 10, 2020 at 2:48 PM with the headline "ICU beds are filling up in SC as COVID surges. This map shows how your area is faring."