by Carrie Moritz, Gazette
Mitigation efforts put in place in communities across South Dakota during the peak of COVID-19 infections in November appear to continue helping the decline in cases, despite a significant rise in cases across the rest of the United States.
On Tuesday, the U.S. hit a milestone of 400,000 deaths as a result of COVID-19. In South Dakota, 179 people have died in January so far, raising the state's total to 1,667 people lost to the pandemic. Of that total, 801 people were residents of a long-term care facility.
Overall in South Dakota, active cases have continued to decline, with a 15-day average of 268 new cases per day in the first two weeks of January. On Tuesday, there were 4,232 active cases across the state. Minnehaha County, which has been the county in SD most affected by the pandemic, had an active case rate of 992 cases on Tuesday. The last time Minnehaha County's rates were under 1000 was on October 8.
"The burden of COVID-19 in the United States is still very high," said SD state epidemiologist Dr. Joshua Clayton on Wednesday, January 13. He was glad that the overall case numbers in South Dakota were down from November's peak, where the state saw over 1,400 cases per day during the week of November 9-15.
Vaccinations have continued, with 47,647 people, or 5.7% of SD population, having received at least their first dose. On Monday, the South Dakota Department of Health opened up vaccinations to the first part of Phase 1D, which include those aged 65 and over. This cohort consists of approximately 250,000 people. The state currently receives approximately 11,000 doses per week, which means it will take some time to move through this phase.
“We still do have some 1C folks left on into next week that we’ve scheduled, and so I’m calling it kind of a soft launch of 1D, because there won’t be a, at least for Avera I know, that we won’t have a lot of 1D slots open next week,” Avera's Dr. Mike Basel said last Friday. “We’ll probably have a lot more of them open up the week after that.”
Phase 1D started on Monday with those aged 80 and older. The rest of Phase 1D includes those who are high-risk, such as those on dialysis or who are post-transplant or with an active cancer, and those in congregate living. The phase will soon move the age cohort down to age 65+, and will also include teachers, funeral service workers, and those with 2 or more comorbidities.
Sanford has notified their patients that messages will be sent through My Sanford Chart, letters, and voicemail messages to alert them to set up a vaccination appointment as doses become available. Avera will have their clinics contact their patients to alert them to their eligibility, although those eligible in Phases 1A & 1C can fill out a form on their website at Avera.org/services/primary-care/immunizations/covid-19-vaccine in order to receive their dose. Phases 1A & 1C included frontline health care workers, long-term healthcare workers, law enforcement, EMS, and other healthcare workers.
The next concern public health officials are concerned about are the viral mutations which have been shown to be more contagious. The variant first identified in the United Kingdom, while not necessarily more deadly, has an increased virulence of 33-36%.
Increases in virulence are worrying, as more people being infected increases the likelihood that hospitals will again be overwhelmed in South Dakota.
Public health officials estimate that the U.K. variant may be the most predominant strain in the U.S. within the next six weeks. The mutations identified in South Africa and Brazil have the possibility of causing more re-infections on those who've already had COVID-19. A preliminary study on 44 cases who had the S. African variant showed that nearly half of the neutralizing antibodies were not effective. Researchers are still determining if T-cell immunity is affected.
Further increases in infections will also induce further mutations of the virus, which could make the vaccine less effective. While mutations are normal and planned for with viruses, public health officials worry that the pandemic could take longer to get under control if mutations are able to occur too soon.
This means that measures such as masking, handwashing, social distancing, and staying out of large crowds continues to be important.
