South Dakota keeps vaccinating but hasn’t received increased supply yet
Jan. 20, 2021
South Dakota is slowly beginning to move through the next stage of COVID-19 vaccinations, though the overall number of vaccines available hasn’t increased yet.
That means the state still is receiving about 11,000 doses per week.
Those 80 and older began receiving vaccines this week, following certain health care workers and long-term care residents.
There have been more than 58,000 total doses administered so far. Just over 1 percent of the state’s population has received the required two doses. About 5.4 percent has received one dose. Both rank the state No. 3 on a percentage basis nationally.
“We are anxious for the days when we see a larger allocation of vaccine to our state because we are ready to get shots in arms,” Health Secretary Kim Malsam-Rysdon said.
The current group being vaccinated, known as 1D, ultimately includes all those 65 and older and totals about 265,000 people.
While there have been few reports of reactions to the vaccine, the state looked into two individuals who died within 24 hours of receiving it.
“It has not been identified that the COVID vaccine has been involved in any of those occurrences,” state epidemiologist Dr. Josh Clayton said.
“We do continue to monitor for all impacts and adverse reactions to the COVID vaccine. Those are the two most severe issues we have seen arrive but have not been linked to the COVID vaccination.”
While the U.K. variant of the virus still has not been detected in the state, it’s expected that will be the predominant strain nationwide sometime in March, he said.
That in turn is expected to increase demand on health systems and require more people be vaccinated to get the pandemic under control, Clayton added.
“Due to the higher rate of transmission, it will likely lead to more cases.”
Here is the state’s current schedule for vaccinations, which could change based on allocation. Editor’s note: We added a more current schedule Jan. 22.
