COVID-19 recoveries set record as hundreds more test positive

South Dakota saw a record number of people who the Department of Health deemed as having recovered from COVID-19 on Wednesday.

At the same time, the state reported 392 additional people who tested positive for the disease. The new infections were 26 fewer than the 418 people who recovered from coronavirus infections.

The number of deaths from the disease among South Dakotans remained at 223. There were 212 people in state hospitals with COVID-19. Since the start of the pandemic, 1,549 people with COVID-19 in South Dakota have been hospitalized, roughly 7% of the people who have tested positive.

Minnehaha County recorded 84 new infections, while Lincoln County had 23 of its residents test positive. Brown County saw 17 new infections, and Codington County had 12 new infections. Pennington County had 40 new positive cases.

The state also set a record in the number of test results reported in a 24-hour period, with 5,663 new results, which included 1,623 South Dakotans who had previously not been tested.

Those aged 30-39 had the highest number of new positive cases, with 70.