South Dakota hospitals bracing for monthlong virus surge

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SIOUX FALLS (AP) – South Dakota's largest hospitals are bracing to receive a growing flow of COVID-19 patients over the next month, doctors for Avera Health and Sanford Health said Wednesday.

Top doctors for the health systems, alongside Sioux Falls Public Health Director Dr. Charles Chima, held their first public briefing in months as the state sees a wave of coronavirus cases spurred by the contagious delta virus strain. The state Department of Health has not held public briefings dedicated to the virus since June. At the time, coronavirus cases had reached one of their lowest levels since the pandemic began.

But over the past two weeks, the rolling average number of daily new cases has increased by 65% and one out of every 310 people in the state has tested positive for COVID-19 in the last week, according to Johns Hopkins researchers.

“We’re seeing hospitals around us filling up with COVID patients,” said Dr. Mike Wilde, the chief medical officer at Sanford Health.

Wilde predicted cases and hospitalizations would peak in roughly one month, but Dr. David Basel, the vice president of clinical quality at Avera, added that there “are a lot of unknowns with the delta variant.”

Both doctors said hospitals were ready to receive many more patients, but pressed for people to get vaccinated, wear a mask in public and take other precautions.

“Nobody wants to see the trying times we went through last year,” Wilde said.