The COVID-19 case rate in Lexington County went up for a seventh-straight week, and the recommendation for people in the county to mask against the virus remains in effect.

With the case rate for the seven days leading up to Jan. 12 coming in at 348.45 per 100,000 people, the county’s COVID Community Level remains high. The levels are provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and use the latest local data to provide counties guidance on how best to guard against the virus. A high level triggers a universal recommendation from the CDC and the state Department of Health and Environmental Control to mask in indoor public places.

This is the fourth-straight week in which Lexington County has been recommended to mask.

In the previous six weeks, the case rate went from 88.37 per 100,000 people to 202.18 to 202.51 to 250.04 to 283.51 to 307.62.

The county went down slightly in the other two metrics used to calculate Community Levels.

The number of new COVID hospital admissions per 100,000 people was 19.5 per 100,000, down from 20 last week, and the percentage of staffed inpatient hospital beds in use by COVID patients was 7.8%, down from 8%.

In both metrics, the county remains substantially above where it was two weeks ago, when there were 15 new COVID hospital admissions per 100,000 people and 4.8% of staffed inpatient hospital beds were in use by COVID patients.

23 of the state’s 46 counties have a high level this week, up from 22 last week. The number of counties with a low level also went up, going from two to four.

Among Lexington’s neighbors, two counties (Newberry and Richland) have a high level, three (Saluda, Aiken and Orangeburg) have a medium level and one (Calhoun) has a low level.

Lexington’s continuing COVID spikes come amid what DHEC deemed a statewide surge earlier this week.

The statewide case rate has increased for most of the fall and winter. DHEC reports that there were 3,459 cases for the week ending Oct. 29, with numbers continuing to rise nearly every week, with 10,481 cases being reported the week ending Dec. 31.

“We are seeing significant increases in COVID-19 cases across our state, and we know there are a lot more cases that aren’t being reported due to the use of nonreportable home tests,” Dr. Brannon Traxler, DHEC Public Health Director, is quoted in a release. “Masking remains one of the best ways to limit virus spread and the CDC has a great resource to help determine when to mask in public.”