State health officials say there are less than 40 positive COVID-19 cases at K-12 schools. The number includes students, teachers and staff members. 19 school districts in South Dakota report at least one case.
State epidemiologist Josh Clayton says identifying close contacts will still apply for students if a positive case emerges.
“Now, there are other considerations around the level of mixing that we have in some of the younger elementary age students—social interaction that people may have in older grades…There are definitely a lot of moving pieces, moving components when it comes to conducting a case investigation and identifying those individuals who are close contacts.”
Clayton says an individual is considered a close contact if they are within six feet of a positive COVID-19 case for more than 15 minutes. He says the health department will leave COVID-19 notifications up to the individual school district.
On Thursday, the South Dakota Department of Health reports 125 new cases of COVID-19 and two new deaths. The latest deaths were residents from Davison and Minnehaha counties. 157 individuals have died from the disease. The state has reached 10,691 total positive cases.
Minnehaha County reports the highest number of newly identified cases with 30. 26 other counties report smaller increases.
Active COVID-19 infections in the state increased by 47 to 1,269.
53 people are currently hospitalized and 87 percent of overall cases have recovered.