After hitting a record high of 36,247 reported active cases of COVID-19 on January 24, South Dakota is on the back side of the latest wave of pandemic cases. On Tuesday, the South Dakota Department of Health reported there were 20,824 confirmed active cases, a decrease of over 15,000 in two weeks. Of those active cases, 3,496 were in Minnehaha County.
This is welcome news as citizens make it clear they are over pandemic precautions. Mask mandates in schools in Connecticut, California, New Jersey, and Delaware are in the process of being lifted in states as case rates decrease.
Several countries have experienced large protests and unrest as vaccine mandates go into effect, including a week-long protest in Ottawa, Canada. This has occurred even as scientists continue to show that vaccination leads to an 82-94% decrease in hospitalizations and death from COVID-19 (during the Delta variant wave, the decrease was 94%, and the most recent Omicron variant, the decrease has been 82%).
At this time, 65% of the United States population is fully vaccinated for COVID-19.
In South Dakota, 57.5% of the population age 5 and older have completed their vaccine series. Studies of other vaccination efforts show that 80-90% of a population must be vaccinated before "herd immunity" can be reliable.
In January, 203 people lost their lives due to COVID-19 in South Dakota.
In the United States, COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in the United States in 2020 according to the Centers of Disease Control, surpassed only by heart attacks and all forms of cancer. The vast majority of those who died from COVID-19 in 2021 were unvaccinated. As of February 8, 906,727 people in the United States, and 5,756,706 people worldwide, had passed away as a result of COVID-19, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
To reduce the chances of acquiring COVID-19, the CDC recommends vaccinating or getting a booster if you have not yet done so and it's been six months since receiving the second dose of Moderna or Pfizer or two months since the first Johnson & Johnson dose. They also recommend continuing to mask in public, wash your hands, and to social distance.
