As COVID-19 cases increase in state, Governor encourages personal responsibility

Positive COVID-19 case numbers increased by 21 on Wednesday to 129, including one more death caused by the virus.  A Beadle County woman, Mari Hofer, died suddenly on Saturday at the age of 51. Her husband says he received the positive results of Hofer’s COVID-19 test on Tuesday.  The first death was a Pennington County man in his 60’s who died earlier in March.

There are no positive cases reported so far in Kingsbury, Lake, Miner, or Moody counties. State health officials said that there had been a case reported in Kingsbury County on Tuesday, but on Wednesday said that person’s residence was actually Brookings County.  Overall, the state Department of Health reported that 51 people have recovered from COVID-19.

Governor Kristi Noem used her daily news briefing Wednesday  to talk about the importance of personal responsibility in slowing the spread of this deadly virus.

Noem says that South Dakotans have answered the call so far.

The governor says the virus cannot be completely stopped.  

Noem says the state will get through this as long as everyone does what they are supposed to do. 

Governor Noem encourages residents looking for more information on the virus or the state’s response or resources to visit the state’s coronavirus website at covid.sd.gov.