COVID-19 cases continue to climb

Lincoln County, South Dakota passed 800 active cases on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2020 with the South Dakota Department of Health (SD DOH) reporting 804 active cases of Coronavirus in the county.

As of Wednesday, Oct. 28 Lincoln County records a total of 2,759 COVID-19 cases. There are 1,937 recovered cases and 18 deaths reported in Lincoln County.

Statewide as of Oct. 28 South Dakota has 11,933 active COVID-19 cases out of a total of 42,000 cases. This is an increase of 3,245 active cases from last week, and an additional 7,969 cases overall.

Total recoveries in the state are at 29,683.

There are 412 people currently hospitalized, which is an increase of 80 people in the hospital because of COVID-19 since last week.

COVID-19 has attributed to the deaths of 384 South Dakota residents as of Oct. 28. This is an increase of 52 from last week Wednesday.

COVID-19 cases among the state’s K-12 schools and colleges and Technical Schools, released Oct. 26 are as follows: From Oct. 18-24 an additional 581 cases have been added at the K-12 level, bringing the total to 3,558 since Aug. 9. This number includes 2,522 students and 1,050 staff members.

Within South Dakota Colleges, Universities, and Technical Colleges there were an additional 126 cases added Oct. 18-24, bringing that total to 1,895 cases since Aug. 9. This number includes 1,742 students and 153 staff members who have tested positive for COVID-19. For more from the department of health visit https://covid.sd.gov.

Locally, Tea Area School District COVID-19 Mitigation Response Level remains as “Yellow” in all buildings as of Oct. 28, 2020. Yellow is defined as Isolated active cases in a classroom (1-5 cases) and/or isolated active cases in classrooms across a building (1-4 classrooms).

As a country, the U.S. reports 8,812,318 positive COVID-19 cases and COVID-19 has attributed to the deaths of 227,109 U.S. residents of as of Oct. 28, 2020, according to John Hopkins University and Medicine.

During the Oct. 28 South Dakota Department of Health weekly press briefing, Secretary Kim Malsam-Rysdon said she is “optimistic” about a vaccine being available mid-November. When pressed for details, she clarified to say the state will be ready by mid-November to get a vaccine out to health care workers first when it is ready.