November 30, 2022: COVID Weekly Data Update

Risks Associated with COVID Reinfection

A previous study from the VA Administration on the risks associated with reinfection has been published in final form in Nature (I previously discussed the preliminary results).  As shown below, the risk (HR, hazard ratio) of adverse outcomes increases as the number of reinfections increases. 

Title:  Cumulative risk and burden of sequelae in people with one, two, and three or more SARS-CoV-2 infections compared to noninfected controls.

Take home message:  do what you can to prevent being reinfected with COVID, or infecting others.

Influenza in South Dakota

Cases of influenza in South Dakota continue to rise.  More information can be found at https://doh.sd.gov/diseases/infectious/flu/surveillance.aspx

High numbers of COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are likely to stress local hospitals.  You can help your healthcare systems and providers, as well as high-risk individuals, by getting the updated bivalent COVID booster and the flu vaccine for this year. 

South Dakota Mortality Data

The number of deaths for August has been posted on the SDDOH website and the following graph has been updated.  The number of deaths from January through August 2022 is 5,930.  The average number of deaths for similar months for 2010-2019 was 5,149.  The number of excess deaths, or the difference between the observed and the average, is 781. 

On the positive side, the death rate for August was close to the average death rate between 1960 and 2019 (below).

COVID-19 in China and Global Concern

Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist, writes a weekly blog titled “Your Local Epidemiologist.” This week’s blog is an excellent discussion of what is happening in China.  It’s a short read but summarizes the situation nicely.  I recommend reading it. 

Updates:

2022_11_30-covid-dataDownload

Note regarding this week’s data:  Local, state, and national data for this week are likely to be under-reported due to the short work week as a result of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Brookings County (low community level; high community transmission [% test positivity = 24% vs. 22% last week])

• 9,121 total cases:  29 new cases this week vs. 22 in the previous week. Of the new cases this past week:
  • 31% were under 20 years of age (vs. 14% in previous week)
  • 21% were 20-39 years (vs. 32% in previous week)
  • 10% were 40-59 years (vs. 27% in previous week)
  • 38% were 60 years or older (vs. 27% in previous week)
• 245 Brookings County residents have been hospitalized with COVID: no new hospitalizations posted this past week compared to 1 in the previous week.  Currently, the percentage of staffed beds that are COVID-occupied in the Sioux Empire region is 4.4% (compared to 3.3% last week). 
• 62 Brookings County residents have died of COVID:  no deaths were reported this past week compared to 1 in the previous week.

South Dakota (low community level; high community transmission [% test positivity = 20-24% vs. 20-24% last week])

• 268,797 cases: 1,108 new cases this week vs. 846 in the previous week. Of the new cases this past week:
  • 20% were under 20 years of age (vs. 20% in previous week)
  • 23% were 20-39 years (vs. 23% in previous week)
  • 22% were 40-59 years (vs. 20% in previous week)
  • 35% were 60 years or older (vs. 37% in previous week)
• 12,075 South Dakota residents have been admitted to in-state hospitals with COVID: 30 were admitted to in-state hospitals this week vs. 41 last week. Of the new hospital admissions this past week:
  • 3% were under 20 years of age (vs. 2% in previous week)
  • 0% were 20-39 years (vs. 5% in previous week)
  • 3% were 40-59 years (vs. 10% in previous week)
  • 93% were 60 years or older (vs. 83% in previous week)
• 74 people are currently hospitalized vs. 72 last Wednesday (1 currently in the ICU vs. 11 last week). Currently, the percentage of staffed beds statewide that are COVID-occupied is 3.5% (compared to 3.4% last week).
• 3,099 South Dakotans have died from COVID:  3 new deaths were reported this week vs. 8 in the previous week.  Of the new deaths this past week, all were aged 60 years and older.

USA

• 100.5 million cases:  181,332 new cases this week vs. 376,992 in the previous week
• 1.10 million total deaths:  1,354 deaths this week vs. 3,064 in the previous week

Worldwide

• 647.3 million cases: 3.55 million cases this week vs. 2.80 million in the previous week
• 6.63 million deaths: 8,725 deaths this week vs. 11,810 in the previous week 

Take care of yourself and each other.