STURGIS, S.D. – The stress of COVID-19 on the state’s hospitals continues as health officials reported Saturday the number of people hospitalized due to the virus rose to 515 Saturday.
Hospitals across the state, including Monument Health West River, announced they will begin transferring non-COVID-19 patients to their surge areas due to the rising number of hospitalizations. Monument is also bringing in contract caregivers and working with other hospitals in the region to allow them to keep their patients closer to home.
The number of new cases Saturday hit 1,337 and active cases soared above 15,000 for the first time to 15,050.
Deaths due to COVID-19 also continued to mount as another 13 people died according to the Saturday report.
New numbers across West River were 374 with Pennington County seeing 164 new cases today. The new cases added to the total of 5,639. Of those, 1,539 remain active in Pennington County.
In Lawrence County, another 42 new cases were reported sending the total to 1,295. Of those, 457 remain active.
Meade County added 27 new cases, sending the cumulative total to 1,176. There are 274 active cases in Meade.
Other new cases across West River today include 30 in Dewey, 21 in Oglala Lakota, 14 I Tripp, 13 in Gregory, 8 in Butte, 7 each in Custer, Stanley and Bennett, 6 each in Perkins and Ziebach, 5 in Lyman, 4 each in Corson, Todd and Jackson, 2 each in Fall River and Jones, and one in Mellette counties.
