County sets new high mark with 220 active COVID-19 cases

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HURON — Between Wednesday and Thursday, Beadle County added 43 new positive cases in the numbers released by the South Dakota Department of Health (DOH). With 12 new recovered cases announced in the same time, the county saw active virus cases in the county balloon to 220, the highest number the county has ever recorded. The previous high was 208, last recorded on June 7.

The county added three new hospitalizations to the overall tally over the two-day period as well, bringing the total of Beadle residents that have ever been hospitalized due to COVID-19 to 43. There are currently 10 county residents in the hospital due to complications from the virus, as of Thursday, per the DOH.

The state added 1,560 new positive cases between Wednesday and Thursday in the DOH’s numbers. The state did add 711 new recovered cases, but the additional active cases pushed the state over the 9,000 active cases point in the state, meaning that more than one percent of the state’s entire population is actively ill with COVID-19. Thursday’s DOH numbers ended with the state at 9,273 active virus cases.

Over the two days, the state also added 17 new deaths, which brought the overall deaths in the state to 347, 124 of which have occurred in October alone. That is more than double the next-highest month, which was 56 deaths in September.

South Dakota added 38 new hospitalizations on Thursday in the DOH’s numbers, bringing the total state residents who have ever been hospitalized due to the virus to 2,277. Currently, 355 state residents are in the hospital due to complications from COVID-19.

State epidemiologist Dr. Josh Clayton was asked in the DOH weekly press briefing Wednesday about reinfections in the state potentially influencing numbers. He stated that the CDC initially laid out reinfection criteria that has been altered to require 90 days since first testing along with a number of other requirements in order to be deemed a true reinfection.

Dr. Clayton clarified that if a person was deemed reinfected, that person would still be one positive case on the state’s numbers, so it would not add to the numbers if someone was reinfected. Regardless, he stated that no one has met the CDC requirements to be termed a reinfection by their standards.

The Heartland region added 44 new positive cases Thursday across the seven counties in the region. Active virus cases have risen to 448 across the seven counties with 16 current hospitalizations.