(WIS) - The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) announced 1,265 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and 21 additional confirmed deaths Friday.

This brings the total number of people with confirmed cases since the outbreak began to 97,554 and confirmed deaths to 1,883.

The chart below shows the actual date of death for each of the people whose deaths were announced Friday -- including five probable COVID-19 deaths.

Of those 26 people -- four died Thursday, 12 died Wednesday, 5 died Tuesday, one on Monday, two on Sunday and two deaths dated back to July 22, DHEC said.

That brings the total of probable cases to 708 and the total number of probable deaths to 79 in the state since the outbreak began.

For more information about why DHEC reports probable cases and deaths, keep reading.

DHEC now uses a document to show county-by-county numbers of new confirmed and probable cases.

The recent spike in cases in South Carolina is not just due to more testing, DHEC officials have said repeatedly.

When daily case numbers are high and the percent positive is high, that indicates more virus spread in the community, DHEC said.

Of those currently hospitalized, 1,415 are patients who have tested positive for COVID-19 or are under investigation for having the virus, DHEC said.

As of August 6, DHEC has estimated 89% of people who didn’t die from the virus, and that they have “symptom onset data” for, have recovered.

Based on that information, DHEC estimates that about 37,798 of those people have recovered so far.

The rest of those people are still fighting the virus, DHEC says.

When looking at the confirmed numbers of cases and deaths, one could figure the death toll from the virus is about 1.93% in South Carolina.

However, DHEC estimates that for every confirmed case of the virus, there are up to nine other people in the community who have also been infected.

If that is the case, as DHEC suggests, there may have been more than 696,814 coronavirus cases in the state so far.

On June 18, DHEC announced it would begin reporting probable cases and deaths.

Young people who contract the virus are not likely to have a serious case, research shows.

The mortality rate for people with the virus was first widely reported around 2 to 3%, but health experts noted at the time that the actual percentage was not that high, as not all cases are diagnosed or reported.