South Dakota sees 66 new coronavirus cases, state health secretary responds to Rapid City mayor

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN/KOTA) - The South Dakota Department of Health is counting two more deaths in the state Thursday attributed to the coronavirus. One of those is in Pennington County, the 25th in the county. There are also 66 new cases statewide Thursday, including nine in Pennington County, three in Meade County and two in Lawrence County.

Wednesday, Rapid City Mayor Steve Allender said he was stopping his weekly press conferences, citing his frustration with what he said was a lack of information he was getting from the Department of Health. Allender specifically talked about trying to get information about a cluster at the Avantara Saint Cloud nursing facility in the city. Thursday, State Health Secretary Kim Malsam-Rysdon said she was disappointed to hear Allender's comments and decision.

Malsam-Rysdon says, 'So I was pretty disappointed to hear that. I think thanks to the leadership of governor Noem and our team, we've had a great response to COVID and are disappointed that he has chosen not to continue press conferences in light of the fact that we're providing more information now than we've provided ever in the past."

With the 66 new cases Thursday, South Dakota has now seen a total of 8.143 positive cases. 808 of those are listed as active cases, up nine from Wednesday. There are 413 more negative tests Thursday, putting that total at 94,393. 50 patients are currently in the hospital, six fewer than Wednesday. The number of deaths rises to 121 and 7,214 patients are classified as recovered. Over in Wyoming, they’re listing 59 new cases Thursday, including five more in Campbell County. They also have 424 probable cases. Wyoming has done 65,469 tests. The number of deaths holds steady at 25 and 1,457 patients are called recovered, an increase of 40 from Wednesday.