HURON – After setting new high marks for both K-12 and college numbers in the school report to the South Dakota Department of Health (DOH) in the previous week, those numbers were surpassed this week.
The state’s K-12 schools saw a significant jump, reporting 1,199 new positive cases over the week of Jan. 9-15. The previous week, the 899 K-12 schools in the state reported 849 new positive cases, which was nearly double the previous weekly high from K-12 schools this school year.
K-12 schools currently report 2,166 active cases, with 212 school districts noting three or more active cases among students and staff at the last report to DOH.
South Dakota’s 15 colleges, universities, and technical schools noted 235 new positive cases over the week of Jan. 9-15. This was a slight increase over the 227 new positive cases reported the previous week.
The state’s colleges currently reported 499 active cases with 14 of the 15 campuses reporting three or more active cases.
The state added 9,071 new positive cases over Wednesday and Thursday, including a new single-day high of 6,483 on Wednesday. This surpassed the previous single-day high of 4,110 new positive cases, set Jan. 11.
South Dakota also added 3,776 new recovered cases and 22 new deaths over the two-day period. More than 5,000 active cases were added to the rolls, with active cases at 34,086 in Thursday’s DOH report.
Beadle County added 99 new positive cases over the two days, including a new single-day mark for the county of 74 new positive cases reported Wednesday.
The county also reported 50 new recovered cases. Active virus cases in Beadle bumped up to 441.
The Heartland region recorded 234 new positive cases over the two days, moving the seven-county region past 1,000 new positive cases for the month of January, just the third time during the pandemic that the region has topped that mark. November 2020 reported 1,898 new positive cases, and October 2020 saw 1,194 new COVID cases.
The Heartland also noted 105 new recovered cases, which left active COVID cases in the region at 953.
