Update on COVID for state and region
This item is available in full to subscribers.
To continue reading, you will need to either log in to your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription.
If you are a current print subscriber, you can set up a free website account and connect your subscription to it by clicking here.
If you are a digital subscriber with an active, online-only subscription then you already have an account here. Just reset your password if you've not yet logged in to your account on this new site.
Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.
Please log in to continue |
HURON — While the statewide active cases and new positive COVID-19 cases are trending down in reports from the South Dakota Department of Health (DOH), Beadle County and the Heartland Region are showing an increase in the virus locally.
The state added 739 new positive cases, one new death, and 877 new recovered cases in Tuesday’s DOH numbers. Active cases in the state dropped to 5,679.
Beadle County added 19 new positive cases, a day after adding 17 new positive cases. The county also added 14 new recovered cases. The added positive cases bump Beadle’s active virus cases up to 80.
The Heartland Region added 32 new positive cases and 25 new recovered cases among the seven counties in the region. Active cases in the region increased slightly to 171.
The Heartland has seen new positive cases come more frequently from testing this month than any month of the pandemic. Each positive case that is reported is a new, unique individual that has been reported with COVID-19. Someone who contracts the virus a second time is not reported as a new positive case. Similarly, testing a second time and testing positive again does not add another new positive case to the region’s tally.
With the novelty of the virus, it made sense that last fall saw significantly high percentages of positive cases in testing, with 14% of tests in October and 21.5% of tests in November in the Heartland resulting in a new positive case. However, that number was under 2% all summer long (0.6% in June!) and has not exceeded 6.8% in 2021.
Until October.
While total positive cases are not expanding at a tremendously high level, testing is also not being done at a high level, and the Heartland is currently reporting a 7% positivity rate on testing done within the region, the highest in 2021.
The region has recorded 206 positive cases through Tuesday’s DOH report across the seven counties in the region and has reported 2,935 tests. At current paces, the region will have the most new positive cases it’s seen for a month in 2021 with a testing rate that would rank fourth or lower among months in 2021.
