PIERRE, S.D. – The South Dakota Department of Health reported 66 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday, down from Tuesday’s 80 new cases reported.
One new death was reported today, and the person was in their 80’s out of Lawrence County. It is the second COVID-19 related death in Lawrence County.
Health officials say 23 of today’s new positive tests were in the Black Hills area.
Pennington County had the most as they recorded 9 new cases, giving them a cumulative total of 1,091. Of those, 181 remain active; an increase of 2 over yesterday.
Lawrence County reported 4 new cases, sending their total to 129 with 59 of them remaining active. The active cases are also up 2 in Lawrence today.
Meade County had 3 new cases, sending their cumulative total to 179 with 71 active. The active cases in Meade are up one today.
Elsewhere around the Black Hills area, Butte County recorded an additional two new cases, Custer County also added two and Fall River County had 3 new positive COVID-19 tests.
The statewide number of active cases saw another decrease Wednesday – down 17 from Tuesday to 1,513 today.
As for hospitalizations, 58 people are receiving care for COVID-19, up 5 from Tuesday. There were 82 new recoveries today.
The state’s death toll is now 162 after the Lawrence County death.
The health department reported only 86 new person tests being performed over the past 24 hours.
An update on cluster cases across South Dakota:
Health officials report 114 COVID-19 cases now tied to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.
There are 37 of them among South Dakota residents and 35 among Minnesota residents.
Other cases include 18 in North Dakota, 9 in Wyoming, 7 in Nebraska and 5 in Montana.
However, because no single state or federal government is tracking all known cases tied to the Rally, a comprehensive report on the Rally-s effect regarding COVID-19 cases may be incomplete.
The University of South Dakota has reported 60 students have tested positive for COVID-19 so far.
The information is part of a real-time dashboard that was released this week by U.S.D.
The dashboard indicates one staff member also has the virus and more than 330 residents and staff are self-quarantining.
The Douglas School District reports they have seen five COVID-19 cases in recent days. The cases are among two students and three staff.
The superintendent there says the three staff members work at the Badger Clark and Francis Case Elementary school as well as the middle school.
The two students are brothers who attend middle school and Douglas High School.
The individuals are isolating at home for 10 days and close contacts are also self-quarantining for 14 days.
And, in Lemmon, four staff members at the elementary school have tested positive for COVID-19.
That has led to the temporary closure of the town’s elementary school for K-5th grade students.
Those students will go online-learning for the next couple of weeks.
As of now, Lemmon’s middle and high school will continue with in-class learning.
