By Carrie Moritz, Gazette
This March marks the five-year anniversary since President Donald Trump declared a National Emergency on March 13, 2020, and South Dakota came to a complete halt when Governor Kristi Noem closed schools.
During the opening days of the pandemic quarantine, Garretson residents placed more than 100 stuffed bears on porches and windows in homes and stores so that local children could go a hunting outside with their families. //Gazette file photo
On March 10, 2020, it was announced that five people in South Dakota had confirmed diagnoses of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, after watching it march across the world. By the end of March, 129 people had been confirmed in South Dakota, and emergency quarantine measures were in full effect nationwide.
At the time, the strength and full impact of the virus was unknown, except that it was hospitalizing people at a high rate. Immunity was low, and the potential for devastating spread was high. It was worst for those over age 65 and those who had compromised immune systems, and in the year following, just under 2,000 South Dakotans lost their lives from the virus, whether it was the primary or secondary cause of death. It was the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer in 2020, 2021, and 2022 (the most recent year provided by the SD Dept of Health). Garretson lost long-time community member Carol Braa to COVID-19, and nearly lost a few others, including then-30-year-old Cody Linneweber. Palisade Healthcare lost eight residents when it swept through their facility in October and November 2020.
Since it was brand new, the initial advice from the CDC and NIH was to provide 6 feet of distance, quarantine for 14 days if you had symptoms, and clean all surfaces, and later, masking to prevent spread. Recommendations continued to change as scientists learned more, but the constant change was not easy for some, leading to accusations of impropriety and conspiracy theories that permeated American psyches.
However, scientists needed time to study the virus and understand how to combat it, and the goal was to "flatten the curve," or prevent people from catching it so hospitals wouldn't be overwhelmed.
"I do think we did flatten the curve," said South Dakota Secretary of Health Kim Malsom-Rysdon, in a media call on March 3, 2021. "We never did see the 5,000 hospitalizations, let alone the 10,000 hospitalizations that were being projected in the early days."
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