South Dakota Surpasses 200 COVID-19 Cases
South Dakota has broken 200 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
Since Friday 25 new cases have been identified. That brings the statewide total to 212. Of those, 19 have been hospitalized, and 69 have fully recovered.
Minnehaha County again saw the largest jump with 13 new cases, for a total of 81.
Yankton now has substantial community spread. That means five or more of its cases cannot be traced to a known exposure.
State Representative Bob Glanzer of Huron died Friday night after being diagnosed with COVID-19 last month. A statement from Avera on Friday says one of the Prince of Peace Retirement Community residents in Sioux Falls who tested positive has also died.
However, the Department of Health will not update the state death total until it receives a certified death record. By law, that record must be filed within five days of death.
Yankton County Moves to Restrict Public Gatherings
The Yankton County Board of Health will now restrict public gatherings of ten people or more. That’s a move the southeastern South Dakota county government feels they have the authority to make based on CDC guidelines and Governor Kristi Noem’s executive order.
Other counties are looking at similar provisions. Yankton County Chair Cheri Loest says the resolution gives county boards of health the ability to enforce against threats to public health.
Loest says county governments are unsure of their authority in addressing the pandemic.
“A while back they were changing the authority on zoning for the county government because they didn’t think the county government could make their own decision there,” Loest says. “Well, now they don’t think we can make that decision here either. I know it’s not sitting well at the county government level, but that’s what it is. We go back to what can we do.”
On Monday, the legislature denied a bill that allows county governments to pass emergency ordinances to suppress the coronavirus disease. That bill got rejected.
Yankton County has 11 COVID-19 cases and is considered to have community spread.
Musicians Adopt New Tactics in Response to COVID-19
Musicians are canceling gigs months in advance to follow social distancing practices and avoid bringing people together in groups. It’s an essential public health response to a pandemic, but it also means no income for full time musicians.
Dylan James Lewis is in several bands. He plays guitar and mandolin… is in a band with his life partner and pieces together his income.
“ giving music lessons, playing gigs and shows by myself as well as with other bands and then with my main project which is with my life partner and that’s called Humbletown.”
The band is a folk, bluegrass group. The two musicians write their own songs and sing, sometimes inviting other people to play instruments.
“It’s all about the harmonies really.”
Lewis says they had to reschedule a recent album release because of the pandemic and they’ve had several gigs cancel.
“We’ve had a festival cancel, we had a video filming cancel as well as I would say, for me-I had about a thousand dollars worth of shows cancel in the month of March. But yeah, I think that we’re not only losing income, but we’re losing opportunities.”
So he’s being creative. Lewis does virtual guitar lessons with students. And he and his partner are using this time to focus on their new baby. He’s trying to find a silver lining to the pandemic.
“I want to start a collaboration series of people that are far away. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do because technology allows us to do that. But it’s something I never really got around to. So over the next couple of months I’m planning on making a series of videos.”
Using the power of video connections, for an upcoming project, Lewis plans to record with musicians from as far away as Spain.