PIERRE, S.D. – During her Wednesday afternoon press briefing on COVID-19, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem and Health Secretary Kim Malsom-Rysdon announced the state has received nine machines from Abbott Laboratories that will speed coronavirus test processing.
Noem says the state Department of Health is distributing the machines and related supplies.
The Abbott machines can process results of COVID-19 tests in minutes, while other tests can take hours. The state has materials to process more than 700 of the new tests.
Malsam-Rysdon says the machines will increase testing capacity throughout the state.
“We also wanted to make sure that some of our communities that have been hardest hit by this have the testing capacity needed moving forward,” she explains. “That’s why we focused on Huron in particular as well as those two machines in Sioux Falls.”
Two machines are going to Sioux Falls and one to Huron. The other machines are going to Watertown, Redfield, Mobridge, Martin, Hot Springs, and Spearfish.
The secretary says the state can redistribute the machines as needed.
