View Comments South Carolina has confirmed very few delta COVID variant cases, 70 in the past month, even as the variant likely accounts for the bulk of more than 15,000 cases in that time. The screening for the delta variant is limited and it is unlikely South Carolina will know how many positive tests get additional screening, because knowing whether a person has a variant does not change treatment or public health prevention recommendations, according to Dr. Brannon Traxler, the state’s public health director. More than 83% of the new COVID cases in the US are estimated to be from the delta variant, a mutation that is more infectious than the original, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That estimate is based on detailed surveillance, a genetic sequencing of a small sample of positive COVID-19 tests.