South Dakota passes coronavirus testing landmark

Sioux Falls Argus Leader

The inability of the American medical system to perform timely, accurate testing for the presence of COVID-19 has hampered efforts to understand and respond to the pandemic.

More than 100,000 tests for COVID-19 have been performed in South Dakota since the start of the pandemic in March, the South Dakota Department of Health reported Wednesday.

Wednesday's numbers also included another death, a woman between 50 and 59, bringing the statewide total to 119. Fifty-eight additional people tested positive in Wednesday's report off of 1,213 total tests, for a daily positive rate of 4.8 percent.

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Meanwhile, the number of people hospitalized for the virus decreased from 62 to 56, while 78 additional people were deemed to have recovered from COVID-19. That left 799 active cases.

Of the new cases reported Wednesday, 18 were from Minnehaha County and nine from Lincoln County. Pennington County had six cases.

Wednesday's numbers brought the total number of tests to 101,058.

The tests reported by the department don't represent the number of people who have been tested, because some people have tested multiple times. Some states, like South Dakota, report tests, and some report individuals tested. North Dakota, which has performed more per-capita testing than any other state in the Upper Great Plains, reports both tests and individuals tested. As of Tuesday, North Dakota was reporting that 137,293 people had been tested off of 266,690 total tests.

North Dakota has performed 35,087 tests per 100,000 residents, while South Dakota has performed 11,317 tests per 100,000. The closest to North Dakota among states in the Upper Midwest is Minnesota, at 15,627 tests per 100,000.