PIERRE, S.D. – New and active cases of COVID-19 are down, but hospitalizations have surpassed 100 for the first time since spring.
In their weekly COVID-19 update, the State Department of Health reported 1,372 new cases of the virus with active cases decreasing from 4,433 last week to 4,308 this week.
However, hospitalizations rose by 13 over the past week, going from 89 to 102 this week. The Black Hills health care systems account for 20 of those hospitalizations.
There were ten new deaths reported this week, sending the state’s death toll since the pandemic began to 2,973. One of those new deaths was out of Pennington County, where the death toll is now 352. Custer County also reported a death this week.
Across the Black Hills area, Pennington County had the most new cases with 174 – down from last week’s 241.
Lawrence County had the second most new cases with 62 and Meade County added 46.
Elsewhere, Oglala Lakota County totaled 43 new cases, Custer County reported 18, Butte County had 14 and there were 11 new cases out of Fall River County.
As of August 10, 63 of South Dakota’s 66 counties are listed as having “high” or “substantial” community spread. “High” community spread is 100 cases or greater per 100,000 or a 10% or greater PCR test positivity rate.
