Active duty airman at Shaw Air Force Base tests positive for COVID-19

In now the third confirmed COVID-19 case seen at Shaw Air Force Base’s members or dependents, the first active duty airman has tested positive for the virus.

Shaw Air Force Base posted on social media Sunday that an active duty U.S. Air Force airman assigned to Shaw is undergoing evaluation and treatment in line with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The airman was in quarantine when symptoms first presented, the post said.

The airman and family are in isolation at their off-base residence.

As of the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control’s Sunday afternoon update, the state has seen 774 positive cases in 40 counties, including 16 deaths.

DHEC said on Friday it planned to get through a backlog of 1,800 samples over the weekend that had accumulated due to a national shortage of the chemicals needed to process the tests. After a few days that saw less cases be confirmed because less samples were being analyzed, the state public health department announced 234 cases over the weekend.

Sumter County has seen two deaths and 30 cases, Clarendon one death and 16 cases and Lee no deaths and five cases.

DHEC and state officials have been saying during press conferences and reporting in the agency’s daily updates that just because there is a low number of cases in a community may not mean the virus is not there. Officials have been urging people to act as if the virus is in their community or even that they have it.

“There are many people within our communities who have the virus and have never been tested, and because of this, we’ll never have information that accurately represents every case of COVID-19,” the DHEC website says. “Regardless of the number of reported cases within an area, all South Carolinians should take seriously the recommended precautions for protecting against the disease.”