Methods and Metrics

*Weekly Percentage of Emergency Department Visits with a COVID-19 Diagnosis-This is the weekly percentage of people in ED visits in South Carolina with a COVID-19 diagnosis. These percentages are drawn from the CDC and are available at: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_weeklyhospitaladmissions_7dayeddiagnosed_45

*Average Weekly Deaths due to COVID-19-This is the average number of weekly deaths due to COVID-19 per 100k people in South Carolina. These data are drawn from: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_weeklydeaths_totaldeathratecrude_45

*Percentage of Emergency Room Visits for COVID-19, Flu, and RSV in South Carolina-These data are presented by the CDC, and are updated weekly. Data available at: https://data.cdc.gov/Public-Health-Surveillance/2023-Respiratory-Virus-Response-NSSP-Emergency-Dep/vutn-jzwm

*MUSC Inpatient COVID-19, Influenza, RSV Patients-These data come directly from MUSC and are reported daily counts. We update these data weekly. If the cases are below 5, we will report this as an N/A.

*Household Pulse Survey-These data are drawn from The U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, as part of an ongoing partnership between the Census Bureau and The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and includes questions to assess the prevalence of post-COVID-19 conditions (long COVID), on the experimental Household Pulse Survey. These data are weighted, and the details can be found at: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/covid19/pulse/long-covid.htm

Covid-19 Impact Criterion for Level Status:

These community risk levels are informed by The Center for Disease Control's calculation of COVID-19 risk and public health recommendations. The thresholds are for the Charleston Metro Area (Charleston, Berkeley, and Dorchester). Further information can be found on the CDC website (Center for Disease Control and Prevention Website).

We report the growth rate of COVID-19 in weekly Internal MUSC Emergency Department visits and hospital admissions per 100k people. Risk Levels are defined as follows: Low, Medium, and High. We will include the wastewater data if it becomes available across all sites again.

LOW: The weekly ED visits are under 5% for two consecutive weeks.
MEDIUM: The weekly ED visits are above 5%. 
HIGH: The weekly ED visits are above 10%.    

*Metrics shown reflect the day events occurred, not the day they were reported. DHEC releases data on a weekly basis.