SIOUX FALLS – State epidemiologist Dr. Josh Clayton projects that the U.K. variant (B-117) will become the dominant strain of the coronavirus in the state in the coming weeks.
While the state has just 20 cases of COVID-19 variants, and that number hasn’t changed recently, per South Dakota Department of Health (DOH) reporting, area states like Minnesota have seen high growth of more highly-contagious variants.
Clayton spoke specifically to young people in the state becoming infected as the U.K. variant becomes more pronounced.
“The 20- to 29-year-old population, perhaps due to just the increased rate of transmission of the B-117 variant, but just in general individuals in that age group do need to pay attention to some of the prevention and precautions in order to avoid the transmission of COVID-19 the original virus as well as the new variant virus,” said Clayton.
Those looking to track the spread of variants could look to the covid.sd.gov site in the future, per Clayton.
“At this time we are looking to add some information to our website that further defines what we are seeing in those variants in terms of affected populations,” said Clayton.
Friday’s DOH numbers saw the state add 270 new positive cases, seven new deaths, and 282 new recovered cases. Active cases went down as a result, to 2,465.
Beadle County added three new positive cases and six new recovered cases. Active virus cases in the county dipped below 40 again, at 39.
The Heartland Region saw a continued heavy caseload in Kingsbury County with 36 new positive cases in the last week and 101 new cases in 17 days, but the active cases in the region remained steady across the seven-county region at 133 active COVID-19 cases in Friday’s DOH numbers.
