UPDATED July 29, 2020 —
The highest number of active cases in Lincoln County since the start of the coronavirus pandemic came this week .
Since last week 90 positive cases have been added, bringing Lincoln County’s total of positive COVID-19 cases to 521 as of Wed., July 29.
Of those, 97 are currently active. This more than doubles the amount of active cases in the county last week, which were at 35 last Wednesday.
In Lincoln County there are 422 recovered cases. Patients ever-hospitalized in the county has risen to 29. Deaths have risen to two in Lincoln County.
Lincoln County is still defined as having substantial community spread.
During Monday’s South Dakota Department of Health (SD DOH) press briefing, when asked about the rise in positive cases in Lincoln and Minnehaha Counties, the SD DOH responded that any time there is a large increase in cases, it is an area of concern.
“We have not identified any sources to be the cause. If any public notice is due we will release as per our protocols,” State Epidemiologist Joshua Clayton said, “We want to take a look at those cases and identify any commonality — we have not identified an exposure event.”
Clayton added that the Department of Health does have the community impact map and those counties are in the substantial transmission.
“Increases like this are why we want individuals to look at that map,” he said.
Secretary of Health, Kim Malsam-Rysdon also warned on Monday about a possible scam going around. She said that scammers are calling individuals to tell them that they have been in contact with someone with COVID-19 and are then asking for credit card information to run a COVID test.
Malsam-Rysdon said, “When the Department of Health calls they will never ask for credit card information or any money to be sent.”
The SD DOH also clarified the total numbers that are displayed on the website, stating, as of Monday, 132,613 total tests have been preformed in the state, and that equals 106,827 tests on total unique persons. From those, 8,444 persons have tested positive and 98,383 persons have tested negative.
The number of positive COVID-19 cases in the state of South Dakota are now at 8641 as of Wednesday, July 29. Of those, 903 are active cases. A total of 7609 patients have recovered from the virus.
Deaths in South Dakota due to COVID-19 have risen to 129, up from 119 last Wednesday. Currently hospitalized in South Dakota for the virus are 46 patients.
As a country, according to John Hopkins University and Medicine, the United States has 4,387,414 confirmed positive COVID-19 cases and 149,873 deaths as a result of COVID-19 as of July 29, 2020.