PIERRE, S.D. – The South Dakota Department of Health reported a lower number of new COVID-19 cases Monday after 156 were reported on Sunday.
Today, health officials report 86 new positive COVID-19 tests and there were no new deaths after three were recorded over the weekend.
Around the Black Hills area, Pennington County reported 9 new cases, sending their cumulative total to 951. The active number of cases remained at 114 Monday.
Meade County reported 2 new cases and Lawrence County reported one new case. In Lawrence County, a campus email sent out to staff indicated an employee at Black Hills State University had tested positive for COVID-19. State epidemiologist Dr. Joshua Clayton was asked about the situation today.
“We are looking at, the timing in which we notify about school and college cases and that, specifically with Black Hills State University that we do know of 3 cases on that campus. But, there again, it is not reaching that typical threshold for notification, but we are looking at making that information more transparent as schools and universities open this fall.”
In Lawrence County, the total is 74 with 23 active cases today. That is down one from Sunday.
Moving to Meade County, health officials will be keeping a close eye on the number of new cases now that the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally has ended. Out of a total of 106 cases in Meade County, 22 remain active. That is up one from Sunday. Dr. Clayton says so far, the one case rally-related requiring a notice was an employee of the Bumpin’ Buffalo Bar and Grill in Hill City.
“That is the one case we have had a public notice surrounding it. At this point, we don’t have other cases that have either risen to the point of public notice or that we’ve specifically identified as related to rally exposure. But we will continue to monitor.”
Elsewhere in new cases, Custer County reported 2 new cases Monday.
The statewide active caseload increased 12 today to 1,194.
Some good news, the state’s hospitalization rate decreased 6 today to 60. Also, there were 74 newly recovered individuals today.
A total of 519 tests were performed over the past 24 hours.
