South Dakotans File More Than 8,000 Unemployment Claims Last Week
New claims for unemployment benefits continue to rise in South Dakota as the coronavirus spreads. Nearly 8,000 South Dakotans filed for unemployment last week. It’s the third week of record claims from pandemic-related job losses. State residents have filed more than 16,000 unemployment claims in the past three weeks.
The claims are handled by the state’s Department of Labor and Regulation. Marcia Hultman runs the department and says they brought in more workers to handle the influx.
“We have added capacity starting late last week that we have an additional 50 to 60 people answering phones at any one time. Our wait time have been greatly reduced today. I don’t want to jinx us, but great improvements there.”
Hultman wants people to file online if possible at RAclaims.sd.gov. That can help limit wait times for callers.
Congressional funding has boosted unemployment benefits. People filing a claim can now receive up to 600 dollars more per week than the state’s typical maximum of 414 dollars per week. Small-business owners will also soon be eligible, and so will independent contractors and gig workers.
Nationally, unemployment claims fell slightly last week but still numbered 6.6 million. Total U-S jobless claims in the past three weeks are nearly 17 million.
54 New Cases of COVID-19 in South Dakota
South Dakota now reports 54 new COVID-19 cases. That brings the state total to 447.
46 of those new cases are in Minnehaha County. Department of Health officials will not say how many of those are connected to an outbreak at the Smithfield Foods’ plant in Sioux Falls. They are doing more testing of employees in that plant.
Other counties with new cases include Brown, Corson, Hughes, Jerauld, Lincoln, Pennington and Yankton.
The statewide total includes 161 people who’ve fully recovered…27 who’ve been hospitalized…and six who have died.
More Than 80 Positive Cases Causes Smithfield to Temporarily Shutdown
The Smithfield Foods plant in Sioux Falls will close for three days this weekend after becoming a hotbed of coronavirus transmission. Health officials say about 80 employees have tested positive for COVID-19. The union representing those workers says that number is closer to 120.
State officials say they’re monitoring the situation, while the city develops a more targeted communication plan.
State officials won’t say how many new COVID-19 cases are connected to the Smithfield outbreak. And state epidemiologist Josh Clayton says they do not identify specific hotspots.
“We don’t release information down to the city level. What we do release is the information at the county level.”
Secretary of Health Kim Malsam-Rysdon says they only alert the public when they can not identify everyone who might have contact with a positive case.
“Given the situation in Sioux falls with the cluster of cases there tied to a commonality of an employer is what triggered us to identify that as a hotspot.”
As for the city, Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken says he did not know about the extent of the Smithfield cases until about three days ago. He says the federal government is urging the plant to stay open and protect the food supply chain. TenHaken believes the company is taking the situation seriously.
“I believe, for good reason, the spread we’ve seen at Smithfield is not necessarily happening at the plant itself. It’s happening when people leave the plant.”
TenHaken says Smithfield workers speak more than 80 languages, but the city is focusing on connecting with the Hispanic and Nepali communities.
“Those are two of the largest immigrant populations we have in our city. And they’re being hit the hardest with the outbreak at Smithfield. We’re already working on targeted communication strategies with those populations specifically.”
TenHaken says the city has to deal with outbreaks as they come.
“There will be other Smithfields that we’ll be talking about. There will be other hotspots.”
A statement from Smithfield says the 3-day shutdown will let them sanitize the plant and install more physical barriers to allow distance between workers. There are about 37-hundred workers in the plant.
New 90 Minute Rapid Response Test in SD
Healthcare workers have a new 90-minute rapid response test for the coronavirus. The test can make it easier for healthcare workers to identify and triage at-risk patients.
Rochelle Odenbrett is with Sanford Imagenetics and Laboratories. She says labs can run more than 100 tests a day with the new system. Odenbrett says there’s a shortage of the quick tests. Labs across the country have been working together to tackle the challenge.
“In the laboratory field we’re all very collaborative and we share stories and successes with eachother, and one of the things that we’ve learned throughout this process is how others are doing this – especially in the sites that had the COVID hit first. We understand that we can’t expect to use the same products that we’ve been using up to this point because they’re in vast shortage.”
Odenbrett says labs are finding creative solutions like combining test kits and finding different materials. She says collaboration helps them understand what is working well and how to use resources in the best way possible.
SD Government Partnering with ND to Deploy App to Track People's Movements
South Dakota is partnering with North Dakota on an app that tracks people’s activities and movements. It’s called Care-19.
Governor Kristi Noem says the app will use location services on smartphones to keep track of where a person travels.
“If you’re in the unfortunate situation where you test positive for COVID-19—this is an app that will help the department of Health work with you to remember all those places that you’ve been, the people that you may have been near, and will help us more efficiently investigate your case,” Noem says.
Noem says the Department of Health spends hours with those who test positive for COVID-19 helping them remember where they’ve been, potentially putting people at risk. North and South Dakota are two of eight states that have not issued stay-at-home orders.
A link to the Care-19 app is found on the state’s website covid.sd.gov