Gardner gives COVID update

By: 
Gray Hughes

Right before Easter Break last week, Blake Gardner, superintendent of the Hill City School District, released a video discussing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in his school district, in the county and in the state.

Gardner has released similar videos before Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks, and this video marked significant improvement regarding COVID-19 in general.

“At the time of this video we are currently without any active cases in the elementary, middle, high school or any staff,” Gardner said. “So, knock on wood things are going very, very well for our school district. We have maintained in person instruction five days a week, and I am so proud of our community, our students, our staff. I can’t even tell you the benefits this will have for our kids in the future — the fact that we have been able to be in person and been able to have that direct instruction on campus.”

Throughout the United States and in South Dakota, there has been a slight uptick in cases; however, that has not been the case West River, and public health officials have said this will most likely not be a fourth wave of COVID-19.

Gardner noted this fact in his address. After discussing the matter with Sanford Health officials, who said that they are not too concerned, Gardner called for the continued use of COVID-19 mitigation strategies: washing hands, wearing a mask if one cannot social distance and stay home even if minimally ill.

Even with the uptick of cases in South Dakota, Gardner pointed out encouraging news that hospitalizations have not followed the same trajectory.

As of April 1 when this video was released, there were 98 people in South Dakota currently admitted to the hospital with COVID-19. That number remained the same as of Tuesday.

“Again, when I sat in on these webinars from our healthcare providers earlier (last week) they attributed this to a couple of things,” Gardner said. “One of the big ones is the treatment called monoclonal antibodies infusion. …When they get an active COVID patient they give them this infusion and it has dramatically decreased the amount of hospitalizations and the amount of deaths.”

While Gardner pointed to how the COVID-19 cases are going up statewide, he also pointed to cases in Pennington County.

As of April 1 the trend line for COVID-19 cases was going down in the county. The same was true as of Tuesday.

The county, Gardner said, is “substantially” lower than it was in November.

“The trend in Pennington County and West River in general has been very, very positive,” Gardner said.

Gardner, too, pointed to Custer County, which has similar trends to Pennington County. There are many days when Custer County reports no cases, and Gardner said Custer has done “very, very well.”

This is exciting, he said, because even though Hill City is part of Pennington County there are many students, staff and families who live in Custer County. There is a lot of interaction, too, between the two communities.

“Again, it’s exciting that we are seeing definite, positive trends,” Gardner said.

Another promising development since his last video at Christmas was the proliferation of the COVID-19 vaccine.

As of April 1, 257,886 people had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine statewide. That number as of Tuesday was at 276,846, or 46 percent of the state with at least one injection of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Further, since this video was released, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has said that starting April 5 all South Dakotans 16 years and older are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.

“When the rollout first started, we as a state were only receiving about 10,000 total doses for our entire state, and as this process has continued we have continued to increase from 10,000 to 15,000 to 20,000 and just according to Sanford Health in the next week we are expecting an additional 10,000 per week,” Gardner said. “So that’s a great direction that we are headed. ...That’s going to help not only fight COVID-19 but also the variants that go along with it.”

Gardner did point to the deaths that have been attributed to COVID-19 in South Dakota, which totaled 1,938 people. That number is the same as of Tuesday.

Gardner said the deaths are heartbreaking, and his heart goes out to any family that has lost a loved one to COVID-19.

“The positive way to look at this is that the demographic that I directly supervise, which is our kids, is without a death,” he said. “So we are at zero percent fatality (for that age group) in South Dakota.”

At the conclusion of his video, Gardner said the district is very close to the finish line. As the school year winds to an end, Gardner wants people to continue to use mitigation strategies to ensure the health of both themselves and others.

“We have done so well this year. Continue to wash your hands, wear a mask if you can’t socially distance and, above all else, the number one thing is stay home if you are minimally ill,” Gardner said. “That is the number one mitigation strategy to prevent not only COVID but other illnesses, as well. ...It is a sprint to the finish. We have six-and-a-half weeks of school left, and there are many activities and many things, but let’s keep the main thing the main thing: the academics.”

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