T.F. Riggs High School in Pierre has to close its doors due to coronavirus:
Pierre High School Superintendent Kelly Glodt said Thursday there were an estimated 15 cases of the coronavirus among students and 150 students have been asked to quarantine for 14 days.
School officials sent an email alert to parents Thursday morning that said the rates of individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19 has “greatly increased over the past few days.” A special school board meeting has been scheduled Friday to discuss the virus numbers [“Pierre High School Cancels Classes Due to New Covid-19 Cases,” AP, 2020.09.17].
DRG News reports that Riggs is canceling all sports events through Monday, September 21, and postponing homecoming frolicking from next week until the week of October 12.
Inmates at another prominent Pierre institution a couple miles down the road are suffering an even bigger coronavirus outbreak:
The Pierre Community Work Center went from 19 to 105 Wednesday, the Department of Corrections said. The active cases among those inmates stand at 102.
No deaths of inmates or staff due to COVID-19 have been reported.
The Pierre Community Work Center is a minimum-security section of the women’s prison that houses work release and community service status, and parolees in the Community Transition Program. The work center was the first in the state to report a case of COVID-19 in March, which led to more than 150 inmates being put under observation.
There were 140 inmates at the center as of Aug. 31 [“After Pierre Prison Covid-19 Outbreak, Mass Testing Was Conducted,” KOTA, 2020.09.17].
Statewide, South Dakota reported 395 new cases of coronavirus today, our second-highest daily case total of the persistent pandemic.
With coronavirus surging, Governor Kristi Noem did the logical thing and got out of town:
Noem, who has made campaign stops for President Trump in Pennsylvania and Ohio, will be in Michigan for a “Workers for Trump event.” The event starts at 10:30 a.m. in Shelby, Michigan and features Noem, Corey Lewandowski, Terry Bowman and Mike Lindell.
Gov. Noem spokesman Ian Fury confirmed Noem would be at the campaign event in Michigan Thursday. He added she’ll return to South Dakota after the event [Eric Mayer, “Gov. Noem in Michigan for Campaign Event for President Trump Thursday,” KELO-TV, 2020.09.17].
Yeah, it’s not like she has any work to do around Pierre or the rest of South Dakota, anyway…
…but wait a minute; pandemics spread because people travel from place to place. Governor Kristi Noem has put on more miles and traveled to more states in the past month than almost anyone else in Hughes County. Has anyone checked to make sure she and her travel entourage aren’t the secret Pierre superspreaders?
The governor can’t brag about only having about 50 current hospitalizations anymore, so not sure what she’s going to talk about on the campaign trail.
In Mobridge we’re almost egging it on. Heck, there’s at least one active campaign against wearing masks in school. About the only people that do wear masks are the school kids and staff.
With cases creeping up in town, still only 1 out of 20(30?, 40?) people are wearing a mask in stores. Don’t know why business owners aren’t at least requiring employees to wear masks. Sure, some have a plexiglass barrier up at the counter. Can’t imagine the barriers are very effective since they’re not enclosed and they talk out the sides.
A lot of “Oh, I must have had it back in November/December. Had cough, or headache I can’t explain, body ached, etc. Therefore I’m immune.”
Should be fun this fall/winter…
My six neighbor kids that were quarantined last week in Mobridge have NOT been tested. They just go back to school next Thursday as if nothing happened. NOT THEIR FAULT, however we have several seniors and adults with compromised immune systems in close proximity who are concerned to the max. No one here can get a test unless they have symptoms. I work as a home health caregiver and I can’t get a test even though I enter homes, shop for clients, do errands, etc. I wear a mask but they don’t. sx123 was correct that kids and teachers here wear masks, most parents don’t. And there are still many stores or businesses that offer no protection to anyone. I do not shop there and encourage others to boycott them. We have no leadership and everyone is on their own. It’s not only sad, it’s criminal. I taught in McLaughlin for many years and one year we had 2 bomb threats called in. The superintendent had run a college back east and had experience. He handled everything through quiet, calm bus evacuation to the auditorium down the street. After the 2nd threat, he had the bomb squad come from Minot to search the school and surrounding area. Great leadership with a plan. My last year of teaching, we evacuated the school 3 different times from outside threats, and with poor response. We all WALKED to the bus garage, open targets……no leadership……no plan…..poor communication. Everyone out there needs to get 5 other people to vote in November and get these anti science idiots out of office. I only wish we could get Noem out NOW.
BTW, the female inmates at the Pierre Community Work Center? There’s 140 of them in the Center; at present 105 of them are infected. They worked cleaning the Capitol Building (at 25 cents an hour, almost free labor). I hope that all the staff in Pierre are paying attention.
Time, maybe, to re-read Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade?”
Noem Nothing is using state time to increase her “frequent flyer/frequent liar” miles, just like drumpf?
I, like most South Dakotans, wish our governor would stay in Pierre and take care of the business the 800,000 some people of this state expect of her instead of jetting around (on our taxpayer $$$-probably) trying to salvage a failed presidency. She’s selling out our state to a president that reminds me of a pissed-off prairie rattler striking out at anything within reach. He’s scared of what lies in store for him if not re-elected -(or for life as he’d like to be). She surrounds herself with Trump cast-offs which should raise the antennae of the state GOP.
Here’s my idea for a slogan for South Dakota in the age of Covid and Noem
“Closer to Heaven”
SX123, that’s sad to hear. Who’s campaigning against masks there?
Eve, good point. How much contact do those cleaning crews have with the public when they are out doing slave labor for us?
Cory, at least one parent because Poor Little Johnny/Julie can’t handle wearing a mask all day (allegedly). However, I don’t think he/she is getting much traction. The school is operating according to CDC guidelines from what I can tell.
At the lower elementary, I saw most/all the kids running around with masks on like there’s nothing to it, so don’t know what the deal is.
Cory, I don’t know how much direct contact they have / had with staff or public, but it’s something to keep in mind.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 in South Dakota:
It took 82 days to go from 1 to 5,000 cases in SD (March 10-June 1)
75 days from 5,000 to 10,000 cases in SD (June 1-August 14)
24 days from 10,000 to 15,000 cases in SD (August 14-September 6)
Today, 13 days later, we have 18,000+ cases in SD.
It’s speeding up.
And the ICU rooms in Sioux Falls are getting pretty dang full.
Eve Fisher, please, you’re reminding us South Dakotans that our dealings with the slave, reeducation camp women cleaning the capital building, is exactly what China is doing with the Uighur Muslim folks there. Neither one is right, but that’s what’s going on.
The only thing in China is that they have a handle on the trump virus and we here are still doing it wrong. When we hit 2 or 3 million deaths, we may then take a look at what we might be doing incorrectly, but until then, keep digging those graves.
Imagine if the numbers were tied not to COVID, but…say…a building fire. Would the news story be “200 die in massive downtown Sioux Falls fire, 140 hospitalized; state not concerned as most South Dakotans are still alive.”
Another milestone surpassed, another in reach this weekend….
United States
Coronavirus Cases:
6,918,704
Deaths:
203,073
Why hasn’t drumpf done his victory lap for eclipsing 200k hoax dead?
I wonder if they’re sterilizing the women in prison?
Makes me crazy that Medical Moron’s Mengele is doing that in his southern border gulags. BTW, our American Indian sisters still are involuntarily sterilized too.
🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬
In the past two days, iowa has had 21q00 new covid cases and 19 deaths. Deaths are shading 1300 for the stAte.
The Science, of which grudznick has read all, or at least most of, says we will all get the covid bugs, over and over again. This is our new normal.
Grudznick, you left out the part – that science also says – that of those who get COVID-19 a serious percentage will die and many (including even NFL athletes) will be left with permanent disabilities to heart, lungs, kidneys, etc. It’s not the flu.
The thing is Eve, it can be contained.
If the USA had real leadership that enacted and enforced a rigid shutdown for a couple months, we’d be mostly in the clear by now. There would still be localized rolling shutdowns for specific locations, but we’d be on the road to recovery, rather than the unremitting suffering and dying we are currently enduring.
Massive GOP ineptitude, top to bottom and all the way across, is continuing to cost lives and economic problems.
Yes, Ms. Fisher. The experience does show that, backing up the Science. As a Scientist, I can do naught but acknowledge that fact. Many will be messed up and some will die. As my granddaughter’s boyfriend says “it sucks.” I don’t know if that meets your particular standard of sucking, but if it does not, then that sucks too.
Ms. Geelsdottir, I too wonder and suspect they are sterilizing the women in the prisons. Do you think that’s a good thing or a bad thing? grudznick thinks that in most cases it is bad, but the law says there could be exceptions.
Oh, I entirely agree that it sucks swampwater. What sucks sewagewater is that neither our President nor our Governor nor any of the GOP leadership are willing to do anything to contain it – and, as Debbo says, IT CAN BE CONTAINED – which means that yes indeed, more and more people will get it. And more and more people will die and/or be left with life long debilities. And we’re supposed to “accept” that and get on with our lives as if that doesn’t matter. Because in this country, almost no lives really matter.
Ms Fisher, it’s all about the benjamin’s. That’s it. No more duty, honor, country. Simply put, you must die for the devalued dollar.