Covid cases rise in SD after Sturgis cycle rally

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Two weeks after the annual motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, reported Covid infections in the state have nearly six-folded.

South Dakota has counted 3,819 new cases in the past two weeks, including seven deaths, up from 644 cases in the 14 days before it. This makes it the state with the largest percentage increase in Covid cases over the past two weeks.

The rate of Covid-19 infections per capita over the past two weeks in the state is in the lower half of the country, but it’s the sharp and sudden increase in the number of cases that sets it apart.

Meade County, home to Sturgis, has seen 330 new cases in the past two weeks, up from 20 reported in the two weeks before the rally, according to the Johns Hopkins University case count. According to County Sheriff Ron Merwin, the 1,550% increase comes after the motorcycle rally, which typically draws around half a million people, experienced its biggest year ever.

Dr Shankar Kurra, vice president of medical affairs for Monument Health, which runs hospitals serving western South Dakota, including one in Sturgis, said the events of this year’s rally looked like “a replay of the ‘last year”.

As of June, Monument Health had three Covid patients, a low pandemic for hospitalizations, and Kurra said he believed that number could drop to zero. Now the number is 58, about half of what it was at its peak in winter. People hospitalized are younger and “almost 99.9% are not vaccinated,” he said.

“It’s not the highest it’s ever been, but it’s definitely at a number that puts us at a disadvantage,” Kurra said. “You have a strain on resources and a lot of stress on the healthcare system to provide timely care to non-Covid patients. “

It is too early to know if the Sturgis rally, which started on August 6 and ended on August 15, had a direct effect on the increase or can be classified as a “superspreader” event, but the county de Meade now reports 36% positivity. rate, with around 1 in 3 Covid tests returning a positive result. The 82 cases reported by the county on Tuesday were its highest daily count to date, eclipsing the 68 cases reported on August 27, 2020. (Meade County has reported 3,168 cases and 31 deaths since the start of the pandemic, l one of the lowest Covid cases counts, after adjusting for population, among the state’s 66 counties).

Since the start of the pandemic, South Dakota has experienced a higher rate of infections per capita than all but two states, North Dakota and Tennessee, according to an NBC News tally.

Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, has been firm in keeping South Dakota open throughout the pandemic, avoiding mask warrants, criticizing public health officials like Dr Anthony Fauci and insisting on holding rallies mass against CDC recommendations. On Monday, after the Food and Drug Administration granted full approval for Pfizer-BioNTech’s two-dose Covid-19 vaccine for people aged 16 and older, the governor tweeted that if President Joe Biden “illegally demands vaccines, I will take all measures available under the law to protect South Dakotas from the federal government.” Currently, 48.4% of South Dakota is fully vaccinated, according to an NBC News tally.

In an email Tuesday, a spokesperson for the South Dakota Department of Health Daniel Bucheli said the peaks of Covid cases in the state “follow a national trend seen in every state.”

“Regarding the cases surrounding the Sturgis rally, our department was only able to link 16 cases directly to this event,” Bucheli said. “It is important to mention that Meade County currently has a lower vaccination rate than other counties in the SD.”

An autopsy of the 2020 Sturgis rally showed this had led to “widespread transmission” and cases of Covid-19 in at least 25 other states.

“While the number of identified cases is large – 140 cases per 100,000 participants – it is likely that the true national impact of the Sturgis event is underestimated,” said the study, written in part by the CDC , citing asymptotic cases, with visitors not reporting attendance at the gathering and difficulties in contact tracing.

While much of the rally takes place outside, another study was conducted into how the rally affected cases in neighboring Minnesota showed that the main infections that could be traced appeared to be occurring in the city. interior, in a restaurant.

This year, the town of Sturgis took steps to prevent transmission indoors, such as allowing the consumption of wine and beer outdoors if attendees purchased a special mug. A city spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Now, however, the number of cases is not where Kurra and her colleagues want them to be.

“It didn’t help that you have a mass rally event like the rally,” he said.