STURGIS, S.D. – In what’s become a new normal this week, the state reported another triple digit increase in the number of new COVID-19 cases, as 380 new positive tests were recorded Sunday.
Pennington County saw the biggest increase in the Black Hills area as 69 new COVID-19 cases were reported. The cumulative total for Pennington is up to 1,406 and 428 of them are active. The active cases are up 48 Sunday.
In Meade County, another 15 cases of COVID-19 were reported, sending the total to 294 with 158 active. The active caseload in Meade is up 9 Sunday.
Lawrence County had 7 new cases to report, giving them a cumulative total of 217 with 123 active. The active caseload in Lawrence is down one today.
Elsewhere around the Black Hills area, Fall River County reported 4 new cases, Custer County added 2 and Butte County reported one new case.
The statewide active caseload is up 216 today to 2,644. However, despite the rising number of cases the past few days, the state’s hospitalizations have remained stable as only 78 people are reported to be in the hospital due to COVID-19 Sunday. The hospitalization rate is down one today.
State health officials have constantly stated that as long as they could keep those hospitalization numbers down, they expected to see a rising number of new infections. So far, health officials say the low number of hospitalizations is good news in light of the soaring number of new cases this week.
Also good news Sunday, health officials reported no new deaths related to COVID-19. The state’s death toll remained at 167 today.
Total recoveries are now at 10,511, which is 164 more than Saturday.
The state performed 1,145 tests for the latest reporting period.
