Since the Covid 19 pandemic hit South Dakota health officials, state and city leaders have been busy following the numbers. Following the facts through 2020 and continuing into the new year, Beadle county started early on leading the way with Covid cases statewide. Towards the end of the year the positive numbers in Beadle county took off again. A member of the Beadle County Covid-19 Unified Task force and Huron Mayor Gary Harrington on said following the Covid-19 numbers has always been a rough guideline.
On November 8th the positive case numbers in Beadle county hit 503 and continued to steadily climb towards 600. November 18 a peak in Beadle County of 613 was reached. With the rising numbers statewide, keeping pace tracking active and recovered cases became a daunting task for state officials. What happens when the numbers don’t make sense. Huron officials keeping track took notice.
The SD Department of Health initially follow set guidelines for placing numbers into the recovered ranks. Those include checking after 10 days of the positive test for symptoms to be clear of transmitting the virus. The second process is if symptoms remain after 10 days or no contact, they would try again just before 21 days for condition and if unable to contact the case would be moved to recovered. The third option would come from the medical provider advising the patient is clear of symptoms and at 21 days the number would transfer to recovered. The state process was in place but Harrington said information did not match with what they had followed.
With the fervent talk all around of Covid numbers still with us its important that the numbers are at least close to actual. The issue affects statewide county listed numbers and not just Beadle County. Harrington said the are glad to help clear the errors up.
The Beadle County Unified task for is working at keeping track of supplies for follow up vaccinations and a schedule for vaccines for the public down the road. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccine supply chain fluctuates daily.