27 new virus-related deaths include two in Faulk, Spink

Twenty-seven more South Dakotans have died with COVID-19, the South Dakota Department of Health reported Wednesday, while 1,362 additional people tested positive for the disease.

Four of the deaths were in Codington County, pushing the county total since the start of the pandemic to 22. Two were in Faulk and Spink counties, and there was one in each Roberts and Kingsbury counties.

The other deaths were in Pennington County, which also had four; three in Brookings and Butte counties; two in Lincoln County; and one each in Davison, Fall River, Haakon, Miner and Minnehaha counties.

The deaths move the statewide toll to 567. Seventeen of the new fatalities were in people 80-plus. Seven were in people 70-79, two were in people 60-69 and one was somebody 50-59. Ten were women and 17 were men.

The one-day record for deaths in South Dakota is 28.

The number of people hospitalized with coronavirus in state hospitals took a sharp decline to 543. That is 64 fewer than in the Tuesday report.

The state reported an additional 469 recoveries, which put active cases at 17,461. Statewide, there have been 40,668 recovered cases, according to the state.

The new positive cases pushed the statewide total to 58,696. Minnehaha County residents accounted for 307. Brown County had 31 additional positive cases, while Codington County accounted for 28.

Roberts County has now had 10 virus-related deaths, Spink six and Faulk and Kingsbury five each, according to the health department.

Brown and Codington counties were among those with record high numbers of COVID-19 active cases in Wednesday’s report with 616 and 561, respectively.

In Brown County, there have been 2,644 cases since the start of the pandemic with eight deaths, 146 people ever hospitalized and 2,020 recoveries.

Codington County has had 1,052 confirmed and probable cases with 122 people ever hospitalized and 1,469 recoveries.

Avera adjusts

With COVID-19 numbers high, Avera St. Luke’s Hospital in Aberdeen has moved to the next phase of its surge plan, according to a news release. That includes:

• Opening the fourth floor to increase our inpatient capabilities.
• Redeploying staff to areas of greatest need.
• Postponing elective inpatient surgeries on a week by week basis.

Avera St. Luke’s previously implemented two COVID-specific patient areas to ensure virus patients are not intermingled with non-COVID patients.

The health care group continues to see an increase in COVID-19 cases and people needing hospitalization because of the virus, according to the release.

Hospital bed capacity changes regularly and is fluid, according to Avera.

It has also started a public education campaign to encourage mask use to slow the spread of the virus.

“As the pandemic has progressed over the past several months, scientific evidence for the use of masks has strengthened,” Dr. Jawad Nazir, infectious disease specialist with Avera Medical Group, said in the release. “Masks along with other measures such as social distancing are the primary way to halt this virus,” he said.

Avera health experts recommend that people wear masks whenever they are in a public setting or with people other than those they live with.