The figure below shows the percentages of the population testing positive by age group for Brookings County over time. I think it illustrates the benefit of vaccinations: positive cases in the 70-79 and 80+ year age group have flattened over the last three to four months; both these age groups have vaccination rates greater than 80%.
- Increasing vaccination rates in the less than 60 year age groups will decrease the number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths.
- Currently, all age groups less than 60 years have vaccination rates less than 70%.
- In the last four weeks there have been five deaths among South Dakotans younger than 60 years of age (including one in the 20-29 year age group for a total of eight).
And just as a reminder, the CDC currently recommends that even if you are vaccinated you should still protect yourself and others by wearing a mask whenever you are in indoor public settings (see https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated.html for recommendations as of 4/27/2021). Once a high percentage of the population is vaccinated this recommendation is likely to be reconsidered.
Weekly Updates:
Brookings County (substantial spread is 34+ new cases per week)
- 4,198 cases: 27 new cases this week vs. 45 in previous week
- 71 active cases (down from 126 last week)
- Test positivity among people tested (15%) & among tests done (2%); percent test positivity based on PCR tests only (DOH dashboard = 3%)
- Eight out of the 27 cases this past week were among children aged less than 20 years and 15 of the cases were in the 20-39 year age group. There were only four cases in people aged 40 or older.
- 153 ever hospitalized: 4 new admissions this week vs. 1 in previous week
- 37 total deaths: 0 deaths this week vs. 0 in previous week
- 47% of Brookings residents aged 16+ years have received 1+ vaccines and 38% are fully vaccinated (not including VA & IHS).
- Cumulative cases per 100,000 population by week are given for counties with the 10 most populous cities (three slides; see county rankings below).
- Brookings County has the second lowest overall number of cases per population (Lawrence County is best).
- Brookings County had the fourth largest number of cases in the past seven days per population out of the counties with the top 10 most populous cities (Codington County is highest).
- Brookings County mobility data were not updated this week.
South Dakota (substantial spread is 864+ new cases per week)
- 123,073 cases: 675 new cases this week vs. 881 in previous week
- 1,385 active cases (1,789 last week)
- 13% of cases this past week were among individuals aged 60+ years – this is about the same as last week (12%).
- Test positivity among people tested (15%) & among tests done (3%); percent test positivity based on PCR tests only (DOH dashboard = 6%).
- 7,417 ever hospitalized: 80 admissions this week vs. 76 in previous week
- 102 people currently hospitalized vs. 103 hospitalized last week (23 in the ICU vs. 31 last week)
- 1,974 deaths: 12 deaths this week vs. 8 in previous week
- 50% of South Dakotans and 52% of Brookings county residents aged 20+ years have received 1+ vaccines. Brookings County has a higher vaccination rate in all age groups except 20-29 years. All age groups less than 60 years have less than a 70% vaccination rate.
- 13.9% of South Dakotans have tested positive (12.0% of Brookings County residents): the age group with the highest percentage is 20-29 years (18.6% for SD & 15.9% for Brookings) followed by 40-49 year (18.4% for SD & 15.3% for Brookings).
- Overall, 6.0% of South Dakotans who have tested positive have been hospitalized ranging from 1.1% in the less than 20 year age group to 28.9% in 80 years and older age group.
- Overall case fatality rate (percent of people testing positive for COVID who die) is 1.62% and ranges from less than 1% in individuals less than 60 years of age to 2.0% in the 60-69 year age group, and increasing to 20.5% in the 80 years and older age group.
- Cumulative number of cases for K-12 and higher education: 11,631 & 3,889 cases in K-12 students & staff and 3,468 & 666 cases in higher ed students & staff.
- Deaths over time, including through February 2021, and by causes of death (four slides) were updated (last updated by SD Dept of Health 4/11/21):
- 2020 Total deaths (provisional) = 9,857
- Average number of deaths/year (2010-2019) = 7,602
- Difference between observed & average = 2,255
- COVID deaths in 2020 per DOH dashboard = 1,488
- South Dakota mobility data were not updated this week.
USA
- 33.27 million cases: 347,568 new cases this week vs. 390,621 in previous week
- 592,409 total deaths: 5,025 deaths this week vs. 4,928 in previous week
Worldwide
- 154.9 million cases: 5.65 million cases this week vs. 5.78 million in previous week
- 3.24 million deaths: 92,490 deaths this week vs. 91,232 in previous week
South Dakota & Brookings County COVID-19 Comparison Data
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