PIERRE — The Federal Retail Pharmacy Program for vaccination was initially activated in South Dakota on Feb. 11, and two of the first participating pharmacies were in Huron — Northside Pharmacy and Walmart Pharmacy.
On Wednesday, the South Dakota Department of Health (DOH) confirmed that Lewis Drug of Huron was added to the state’s list of pharmacies that are now distributing the COVID-19 vaccination. The total pharmacies in the state now participating in the program is 56.
Vaccination availibility through pharmacies and other federal programs has significantly sped up the vaccination effort in recent weeks across the state with more than 29% of the population now having received at least one dose of the vaccine.
The overall numbers are 237,370 total doses administered across the state to 154,334 unique persons. Of those, 83,036 have completed a two-shot series of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.
DOH Secretary Kim Malsam-Rysdon spoke at the DOH press briefing on Wednesday about the general excitement about the recent approval of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, both due to it being a one-shot vaccine and that it would add to the ability to contine to get “shots in arms,” the stated goal of the DOH during vaccination.
Currently, no announcement regarding the release of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been made, but Malsam-Rysdon did expect vaccinations released to the state to continue to increase due to production upticks seen from both current manufacturers.
County numbers from Beadle County only include those vaccinated through the state allocated vaccine allotment, but those numbers are up to 4,803 doses administered to 3,341 persons, with 1,462 people having completed both doses of a two-shot series.
In COVID-19 virus numbers from Wednesday and Thursday, recent local increases continued with back-to-back days that were each individually the highest single days of 2021. In total, Beadle added 32 new positive cases over the two days along with 15 new recovered cases.
That drove the active cases in the county up to 109 as of Thursday’s DOH numbers. Active numbers have not been over 100 since Dec. 21 when there were also 109 active cases reported.
