PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - Gov. Kristi Noem plans to wait her turn to get a coronavirus vaccine, which will be sometime early next year.
Her spokesman, Ian Fury told the Argus Leader the governor “will get the vaccine when it’s readily available, after those who need it the most have been given an opportunity to take it.”
Noem this week got a first-hand look at how South Dakota’s first round of COVID-19 vaccines are being administered during a trip to Watertown.
South Dakota received 7,800 Pfizer doses with additional vaccines coming from drug manufacturer Moderna next week. The state reported midday Thursday that 1,106 people had been vaccinated.
Front-line healthcare workers and long-term care facility residents are receiving the state’s first doses, while federal officials have said they anticipate vaccines to become available to the general public by April.
State health officials on Thursday reported 594 new positive COVID-19 tests, for a total of 93,197 cases since the start of the pandemic. There was one additional death, lifting the total to 1,301. Hospitalizations dropped from 412 to 406.
South Dakota led the nation a couple of weeks ago in cases per capita, but has since dropped to sixth, according to The COVID Tracking Project. One in every 189 people in the state tested positive in the past week, the Johns Hopkins University group reported.
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