by Carrie Moritz, Gazette
At a time when many are experiencing “COVID fatigue,” public health officials in South Dakota are appalled at the recent increase in cases in the past two weeks.
“It [active cases] has been significantly increasing over the past couple of weeks,” said Sioux Falls Public Health official Jill Franken at a press conference last Monday, October 5. She also noted that hospitalizations have had a significant increase as well, which is very concerning.
“Bottom line, we’ve gotta reverse these trends,” she said.
The numbers for Minnehaha County as a whole surpassed 1000 active cases on Friday, October 9, and as of Tuesday were at 1,354. Prior to that, active cases had only surpassed 1,000 back in early May, when most of the activity was from the Smithfield Foods outbreak.
South Dakota as a whole has been reeling from the large jump in case numbers, seeing new case numbers go from an average of 102 at the beginning of August, to 353 at the beginning of October. As of Tuesday, that average had climbed even further, to 457 average new daily cases. The state has seen several record-breaking days of new cases, active cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in the past week.
This suggests that far too many people are not taking enough virus mitigation steps, wrongly believing they won’t be affected or won’t affect others.
South Dakota saw 52 people lost to the virus over the past two weeks. September’s overall total was 56 deaths.
While the Gazette has not been able to pinpoint how many active cases are currently in Garretson, several reports have come into the office over the past week of a large break out in town. Confirmed cases by the Gazette within the past seven days include an employee at Garretson Food Center, a local insurance agent, an attendee of Renovation Church, and a Garretson School student.
The effects of the virus are extremely variable, and it is currently impossible to know how badly it will affect an individual. Those with pre-existing conditions tend to encounter worse symptoms, and those who are older than 70 have an extremely high likelihood of hospitalization and death.
It has symptoms described as flu-like, including a severe cough and shortness of breath.
It was also confirmed by scientific studies released Monday by the Journal of the American Medical Association that re-infection is possible, and that 53% of those who are re-infected suffer an even worse case than the first time.
As Franken said, everyone really does have to do their part to reduce the spread of this virus. Wear a mask, distance out, reduce contact with others, and avoid large groups, especially those without a mask and/or indoors.
