The attached audio is from SDPB's daily public-affairs show, In the Moment.
The state Department of Health reports 14 more South Dakotans have died with COVID-19, bringing the state’s death toll to 2,371.
Doctor Shankar Kurra is the vice president of medical affairs at Monument Health in Rapid City.
He says 98 percent of people hospitalized with COVID-19 are UN-vaccinated. And unvaccinated people provide more opportunities for variants like Omicron to develop and spread.
Kurra says testing is not enough.
“We are in a true race against time. We need to get folks vaccinated. We can do all the testing - I think it’s a good strategy…. That’s not the solution.”
Data update
Note: The data presented is from the previous day — Tuesday updates include data from over the weekend (Saturday 1 pm CT - Monday 1 pm CT)
- State’s death toll: 2,371 (+14 from the previous report)
- Note: 'Death toll' indicates the number of deaths among people with COVID, but COVID may not have been the sole cause of death.
- Deaths verifiably caused by COVID: 2,103 (updated weekly)
- Active cases: 7,682 (+110)
- Eligable South Dakotans fully vaccinated: 53.99% (+0.1%)
- Vaccine boosters administered: 129,194
- Currently hospitalized: 246 (-1)
- Note: Currently Hospitalized numbers include COVID-19 cases and people that are in the hospital under transmission-based precautions. The number may include out-of-state cases and people.
The vaccination of children ages 5 to 11 against COVID-19 is well underway.
The FDA and CDC have given the OK for fully vaccinated Americans who are age 18 and older to receive a COVID-19 booster shot.
The current advice from the CDC is to mask up indoors if you live in a place with "substantial" or "high" coronavirus transmission. In South Dakota, that's all but Zeibach County.