South Dakota continues to be one of the states most affected as the coronavirus continues to ravage the country, more so rural America.
On Saturday, the state recorded 54 deaths from the coronavirus. It is the highest since the start of the pandemic, beating the previous record of 53 set two weeks ago. Also on Saturday the state reported 819 new infections out of 1,892 people tested, according to the Rapid City Journal.
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Despite these terrible numbers which indicate that the state is heading in the wrong direction, Gov. Kristi Noem–who so far rejected calls to issue a statewide mask mandate–tweeted a reminder to South Dakotans to support small businesses.
There is nothing wrong with encouraging people to support small businesses. But as governor of a COVID hotspot she should be educating her citizens on how to go about doing so in a safe way, i.e. wear a mask and practice social distancing.
There was no mention of the record deaths from COVID in her state on her feed today, I checked. That tweet was the only one sent.
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There have been 79,099 positive tests in the state since the start of the pandemic and 942 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins. 571 of those 942 deaths were recorded in November alone.
