March 8, 2023: COVID Weekly Data Update

South Dakota 2022 Death Data

The Department of Health has updated the provisional 2022 mortality data (link), which is graphed below.  The first thing to notice is that for 2022, the number of deaths each month is still running higher than what was seen before the pandemic (2010 to 2019). 

Another thing to notice is that the numbers of excess deaths, calculated as the difference between the observed deaths and the average number of deaths between 2012 and 2019, are above 1,300 in all three years (2020-2022) and are higher than the number of deaths attributed to COVID.  This has been discussed in previous posts and could be due to a variety of reasons, including misclassification of COVID deaths, the strain on hospital systems, and people not accessing the health care they need. 

Another possibility for the large number of deaths could be due to a larger population size in recent years.  However, if one looks at the death rate per 100,000 population, which adjusts for the size of the population, a similar trend is seen. The reference data in the graph below shows the average, and the lowest and highest death rates by month from 1960 to 2019 (during this time death rates have fallen nationally).

Shown below are the leading causes of death from 2012 to 2022.  COVID deaths have been the third leading cause of death in South Dakota since 2020. 

Wastewater SARS-CoV-2 Levels

Below are recent wastewater and sludge SARS-CoV-2 results for the City of Brookings.

There was a slight increase in the concentrations after the winter holidays, but nothing too surprising.  Wastewater surveillance began after the large peak in the number of cases in January 2022 so there are currently no data during a period of high community levels. 

Below are data from other towns in the region and the national data.  The dashed line represents the number of cases nationally.  As seen on the last graph, the number of cases and wastewater levels follow each other well until the end of January 2022 when home tests became available.  Since that time the wastewater data results indicate that the level of the virus is higher than what the case data indicates.  This is probably because home test kit results are not included in the case data. 

A big thanks to the Water Department at the Brookings Municipal Utilities and Drs. McFarland and Huber at USD for these results.

Updates

2023_3_8Download

Just a reminder of the differences between community levels and community transmission levels:

Community Levels	Community Transmission Levels
Used to determine the impact of COVID on communities to determine which preventive actions to take.	Describes the amount of COVID spread. Healthcare facilities use to determine infection control interventions.
Based on: New cases/100,000 in last 7 daysCOVID hospital admission/100,000 in last 7 daysPercentage of inpatient beds occupied by COVID patients	Based on: New cases/100,000 in last 7 daysPercent test positivity during the last 7 days

Brookings County (low community level; high community transmission [% test positivity = 34% vs. 40% last week])

• Only 18% of people 18 years of age and older in Brookings County have received the updated bivalent booster (link to data here). 
• 9,517 total cases:  22 new cases this week vs. 46 in the previous week.  Of the new cases this past week:
  • 9% were under 20 years of age (vs. 9% in previous week)
  • 23% were 20-39 years (vs. 22% in previous week)
  • 23% were 40-59 years (vs. 15% in previous week)
  • 45% were 60 years or older (vs. 54% in previous week)
• 255 Brookings County residents have been hospitalized with COVID: 0 hospitalizations posted this past week compared to 0 in the previous week. 
• Currently, the percentage of staffed beds that are COVID-occupied in the Sioux Empire region is 3.7% (compared to 4.9% last week), and 23.6% of the total hospital beds are available (compared to 21.9% last week).
• 67 Brookings County residents have died of COVID:  2 new deaths were reported this past week compared to 0 death in the previous week.

South Dakota (low community level; high community transmission [% test positivity = 25%+ vs. 25%+ last week])

• Only 21% of people 18 years of age and older in South Dakota have received the updated bivalent booster (link to data here). 
• 279,130 cases: 641 new cases this week vs. 839 in the previous week. Of the new cases this past week:
  • 12% were under 20 years of age (vs. 13% in previous week)
  • 25% were 20-39 years (vs. 24% in previous week)
  • 21% were 40-59 years (vs. 23% in previous week)
  • 42% were 60 years or older (vs. 40% in previous week)
• 12,582 South Dakota residents have been admitted to in-state hospitals with COVID: 43 were admitted this week vs. 41 last week. Of the new hospital admissions this past week:
  • 2% were under 20 years of age (vs. 7% in previous week)
  • 10% were 20-39 years (vs. 7% in previous week)
  • 23% were 40-59 years (vs. 12% in previous week)
  • 65% were 60 years or older (vs. 74% in previous week)
• 68 people are currently hospitalized vs. 78 last Wednesday (4 currently in the ICU vs. 11 last week).
• Currently, the percentage of staffed beds statewide that are COVID-occupied is 3.2% (compared to 3.7% last week), and 36.0% of the total hospital beds are available (compared to 35.1% last week).
• 3,190 South Dakotans have died from COVID:  9 new deaths reported this week vs. 6 in the previous week.  Of the deaths reported this past week:
  • 2 were 40-59 years of age
  • 7 were 60 years of age and older

USA

• 105.4 million cases:  156,602 new cases this week vs. 264,886 in the previous week
• 1.14 million total deaths:  1,556 deaths this week vs. 2,680 in the previous week

Worldwide

• 680.8 million cases: 896,685 cases this week vs. 1.04 million in the previous week
• 6.80 million deaths: 6,530 deaths this week vs. 7,649 in the previous week 

Take care of yourself and each other.