The UofSC project aims to find out the “real number” of people who have been infected with COVID in SC

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) – More than half of the COVID-19 cases reported in a voluntary statewide survey on the spread of coronavirus in South Carolina were asymptomatic.

“South Carolina Fort” is a months-long project by the University of South Carolina and DHEC that aims to find the “true number” of people in South Carolina who have hired COVID-19, according to the website.

Beginning in November 2020, researchers sent blue envelopes to people across the state asking them to have a COVID-19 viral test and an antibody test. Participants were also asked to complete an online health survey.

“We’re randomly selecting people from across the state, so it allows us this opportunity to identify if there are new symptoms associated with COVID that we hadn’t thought of before seeing these new variants. Or it also allows us to indicate at what speed an asymptomatic infection is occurring, ”said UofSC associate professor Melissa Nolan.

According to data from the 1,300 people in the last group of volunteers, 61% of people who contracted COVID-19 in recent weeks have had no symptoms.

Nolan said most of the respondents in the project survey who were positive for COVID also had a close relative who was infected. He said this indicates that the virus is more likely to spread in people’s homes than in the community.

“Families were very interested in us. Parents with a sick child were four and a half times more likely to be positive than parents without a sick child, ”said Nolan.

The project also found that children become infected at a much higher rate than before in the pandemic.

According to preliminary data from August, approximately one in three parents has had to quarantine their child or currently have a child in quarantine due to potential COVID exposure in school, daycare or extracurricular programs.

“The COVID that we treated this autumn is very different from the COVID that we treated last autumn. With the Delta variant, we really see that children get a lot sicker. So the higher level of virus you have in your body coordinates with a higher potential to transmit, so they have more viruses, they are getting sicker and they are more likely to transmit, ”Nolan said.

Nolan explained with the delta variant that they find that people have a higher viral load, which means they can spread it more easily.

“I encourage you to consider getting vaccinated because there are a lot of chances that you are at home caring for a lot of sick children,” Nolan said.

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