PIERRE, SD – State health officials reported 1,683 new cases of COVID-19 infections Monday.
Active cases have increased by 1,292 to a total of 17,219 and the number of hospitalizations increased by six to 307. The last time active cases were in the 17,000 range, was November 30, 2020 at 17,184.
Six more deaths were reported on Monday, putting the state’s death toll at 2,528. The deaths are in five men and one woman in the following age ranges: 1 each in the 60 -69 age range and 70-79 range and four in the 80+ range. The deaths were in these counties: Brule, Lincoln (2), Pennington (2) and Todd.
New cases across the Black Hills area include 273 in Pennington County. Meade County reported 44 new cases and Lawrence County has 51 new cases.
Elsewhere, Butte County has 13 new cases, Custer County has 8 additional cases, Fall River County has 11 more cases and Oglala Lakota County reported 10.
All of South Dakota’s 66 counties are listed as having “high” community spread. “High” community spread is 100 cases or greater per 100,000 or a 10% or greater PCR test positivity rate.
There have been 1,283 Delta variant cases (B.1.617.2, AY.1-AY.25) detected in South Dakota through sentinel monitoring, an increase of eight over the previous report. There have been 176 cases of the B.1.1.7 (Alpha variant), four cases of P.1. (Gamma variant) and two cases of the B.1.351 (Beta variant).
The number of Omicron cases is at 23, up one over the previous report. On Dec. 22, the state reported its first Omicron variant case in a man in his 20s from Minnehaha County.
