RAPID CITY, S.D. – Citing frustration about the lack of communication from the State Department of Health regarding COVID-19 cases, Rapid City Mayor Steve Allender said Wednesday he was suspending his weekly press briefings.
“If the State cannot or will not communicate with cities so that we can better communicate with you,” said Allender, “then what possible good can come from press conferences like this one?”
The issue came to a head following the recent cluster outbreak at one of Avantara’s nursing facilities in Rapid City.
In the week following the Department of Health’s announcement of the Rapid City cluster, there were 101 new cases reported in Pennington County — 56 of them at one facility.
Allender said he reached out to the Department of Health and he said “they offered me the phone number to the local nursing home so that I could contact them, and also reminded me that there are also twice per week press conferences from the Governor’s Office.”
Allender says he talked with city leaders in Sioux Falls and they have had the same experience. Because of that Allender said he has no expectation that the state plans to improve communications.
“So I believe it necessary to defer communication to the State on matters of COVID-19, and accordingly, I plan to suspend these weekly press conferences.”
Mayor Allender said that he will schedule future news conferences on an as-needed basis when he has new information to share.
