PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota health officials reported 263 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday, with 65 of those considered probable.
Active cases saw another increase as the state continues to see an small uptick in infection rates. The Department of Health reported 2,428 active cases Thursday – up 78 from Wednesday.
Hospitalizations were up another two to 74.
Three new deaths were reported as well, raising the state’s death toll to 1,927.
Pennington County reported 9 new cases Thursday, with one of those listed as probable.
Meade County added 5 total new cases with 3 probable.
Fall River added 3 new confirmed cases and Oglala Lakota County added one new case.
Meanwhile, health officials also reported additional variants of COVID-19 have been found in the state.
This includes one case of the B.1.351, or “South African variant” and five cases of B.1.429 (the “California variant”). The announcement comes two weeks after the B.1.1.7 variant (the “U.K. variant”) of COVID-19 was initially detected in the state, now at 14 cases.
Brookings, Minnehaha, Lyman, Roberts and Pennington counties are those reporting variants. The variant reported in Pennington is the U.K. variant, or B.1.1.7.
Available COVID-19 vaccines have shown some reduced effectiveness against these variants but are safe and offer good protection.
