South Dakota confirms 36 new COVID-19 cases, bringing total to 165

South Dakota saw its biggest one-day increase in COVID-19 cases Thursday, as health officials confirmed 36 new cases in the state.

The new cases bring the state's total to 165, according to the South Dakota Department of Health.

A total of 57 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 have recovered, meaning the state has 108 confirmed active cases.

Seventeen of the cases have involved hospitalizations. Two people have died.

Once again, the Sioux Falls area saw the biggest increase in cases. Minnehaha has 14 more cases, while Lincoln County saw six new cases. In total, the two counties have had 71 confirmed cases, nearly half the state's total.

Beadle County, which has the second highest total in the state, did not see any new cases Thursday.

Yankton County confirmed four new cases and Lawrence County confirmed three new cases. Brown and Union saw two new cases.

Codington, Davison, Hughes, Lake, Pennington, Spink, and Turner counties each saw one new case.

Lincoln and Lawrence were upgraded to "Substantial community spread," based on the CDC's guidelines. Roberts and Spink were upgraded to "Minimal/moderate community spread."

In a briefing Thursday, State Epidemiologist Joshua Clayton said the state is focusing on testing people who have COVID-19 symptoms. He said people who have symptoms are more likely to spread the disease.

Department of Health Secretary Kim Malsam-Rysdon also reiterated the state's projections she

Wednesday. Malsam-Rysdon said the state projects 30 percent of the state may get the disease, 80 of whom will have only minor symptoms and not require treatment.

When asked how many South Dakotan's might die, Malsam-Rysdon declined to give a number, but said she said estimates for the death rate due to COVID-19 range between .5 and 3 percent.

Extrapolating from these numbers, roughly 264,000 South Dakotans would get the disease, of which around 210,000 would develop only mild cases. Using the projections and death rate range Malsam-Rysdon provided, the state could see between 1,320 and 7,900 deaths.

Malsam-Rysdon stressed the numbers are preliminary since COVID-19 is a new disease still being studied. She said the projections could vary widely based on a number of factors.

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