PIERRE — State officials with the South Dakota Department of Health (DOH) would not confirm any of the potential localities of positive tests that had been confirmed to the Plainsman, but the result was that Beadle County saw six additional tests added to its tally in Monday’s numbers from DOH. Those six positive tests brings the county’s total positive number to 37, with 16 coming within the last week. The county also added 10 negative tests as well.

One positive of the additional positive tests has been an increase in testing, and contacts within the testing center and HRMC informed the Plainsman that heavy testing occurred over the weekend that will likely be reported over the next two to three days, which could mean additional positive tests to come. The additional testing in the region has seen the state carry its testing rate over the 1.5% line, though with Harvard University tests suggesting that 2% of the population should be tested each day, the county has yet to achieve 2% of the population tested in total through Monday’s released test numbers.

In the Heartland region, another positive case was announced in Sanborn County as well, which is the county’s third new positive test in four days. The seven-county region has now seen 58 positive tests, with 22 of those coming since May 8. Testing has picked up, with the region overall at 1.89% of residents tested, buoyed by Jerauld and Spink counties, which rank 9th and 10th in the state in percentage of population tested, with 2.56% and 2.55% of their populations tested, respectively.

Statewide, 40 new positive cases were added to bring the state to a milestone as it cleared the 4,000 mark in positive tests and finished with 4,027 positive tests. No new deaths and the addition of 60 new recovered cases meant that the percentage of positive tests that were still active cases dipped below 30% for the first time since May 7.