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Second person in county dies of virus
Posted
Brenda Wade Schmidt
A second Moody County resident has died from COVID-19.
The person’s death was registered Sunday, roughly a week after the first death, according to data from the South Dakota Department of Health. The state does not release names of individuals nor specific towns when reporting the data.
This past week, the number of positive tests in the county increased by 22 to 166 as of Monday noon. Of those, 50 still are active and 114 have recovered since data started being tracked when the pandemic started last March.
An additional 1,040 county residents have tested negative for the virus.
So far, 11 people have been sick enough to be hospitalized.
While Scott Hargens, Avera Flandreau Hospital administrator, can’t speak specifically about local hospitalizations, he said that there are some things people can do to make the community environment safer.
“We 100 percent encourage the use of mask wearing. We do encourage the public when you’re out in the public and you can’t socially distance, masking is the next best thing we can do,” he said.
People with questions about COVID-19 or symptoms, are invited to call the local health clinic.
Both schools in Moody County have had cases of the virus among students and staff since classes started in August.
At Colman-Egan, four staff members have tested positive in the last two weeks, making it difficult to find substitutes. In addition, a handful of middle and high school students have tested positive.
In Flandreau schools, one middle school and three high school students have tested positive since school started. One high school student still is quarantined. In addition, three staff members – two in the elementary and one in high school -- have tested positive but have all recovered.