Childhood Lead
Poisoning Prevention Program
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The South Dakota Department of Health’s (SD-DOH) Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program (CLPPP) would like to invite all medical providers who care for the pediatric population (<18 years) to complete a survey on their lead screening and testing practices.
The survey is completely voluntary, should take less than 10 minutes, and data will only be shared in aggregate. Findings will be used to inform our program activities, and aggregate findings shared on our website.
Survey Link: https://southdakota.sjc1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5sSzZK2KCwnZRGu
If you have any questions, please contact Rose Belony, Blood Lead Epidemiologist, at Rose.Belony@state.sd.us.
We appreciate your feedback!
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The SD COVID-19 Pandemic In Review: March 2020 – September 2022
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Coronaviruses (CoVs) are RNA viruses1. Four CoVs have been identified to routinely circulate in humans, named 229E, NL63, OC43, and HKU12. Another three coronavirus diseases have emerged in the past two decades and cause severe human infections: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV-1) in 2003, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) in 2012, and COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) in 2019. Endemic human coronaviruses most likely evolved from ancestral viruses in animal reservoirs3,4.
In December 2019, the SARS-CoV-2 virus was first detected in the Huanan South Seafood Market (HSSM), within Wuhan City, Hubei province, China5. Several clusters of pneumonia cases were linked to the HSSM6. However, molecular data provide strong evidence that SARS-CoV-2 emerged during the fall of 20192, suggesting that the HSSM was mainly a super spreading location and not an index spillover event. On January 18, 2020, the first confirmed COVID-19 case was detected in the United States in Washington State7. Shortly afterwards, SARS-CoV-2 spread globally, and the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a pandemic on March 11, 20208.
On March 10, 2020, the South Dakota Department of Health (SDDOH) reported the first five cases of COVID-19 in the state. The South Dakota cases were promptly investigated, with close contacts notified and monitored. Case investigation and contact tracing became a core component of the public health response. Upon designation of COVID-19 as a pandemic, and due to anticipated increases in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, one of the immediate societal impacts included K-12 school and college/university closure for the remainder of the 2019-2020 academic year for students of all ages. During the uncertainty of the early months of the pandemic, daily life changed for many South Dakotans.
Early during the pandemic, SDDOH provided education and communicated actions that persons, businesses, and groups could use to prevent COVID-19 infection. Preventative actions included isolation for persons testing positive for COVID-19, quarantine upon exposure to someone infected with COVID-19, staying 6 feet away from others and avoiding crowds (physical distancing), wearing a mask, especially in poorly ventilated spaces and crowds, frequent hand washing, covering coughs and sneezes, monitoring one’s health, and staying home when sick. SDDOH also expanded case investigation and contact tracing activities and partnered with communities to support wrap-around services to persons infected with COVID-19 to prevent ongoing transmission. Several milestones during the COVID-19 pandemic response included:
- Onboarding SARS-CoV-2 testing at the South Dakota Public Health Laboratory on March 6, 2020,
- Development of the COVID-19 data dashboard on June 10, 2020.
- Decreasing the duration of quarantine after exposure from 14 days to 10 days (and option to test out of quarantine after day 7) on December 2, 2020,
- Coordinating COVID-19 vaccination delivery with healthcare partners across the state starting on December 14, 2020,
- Transitioning the duration of isolation from 10 days to 5 days on December 27, 2021, and
- Offering 1 million COVID-19 test kits free to South Dakotans on January 7, 2022.
- COVID-19 Omicron booster approved for all booster-eligible persons aged 12 years and older on September 2, 2022.
A summary of the COVID-19 outcomes, including reported cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, following SARS-CoV-2 infection, are shown in Table 1.
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*Variant cases were identified following genomic sequence testing. Not all COVID-19 cases are sequenced. Genomic sequencing is performed on a subset of all COVID-19 case specimens that are submitted from laboratories across South Dakota. COVID-19 variant types and respective time periods of predominance include Alpha (B.1.1.7) from April 2021 to June 2021, Delta (B.1.617.2 and AY lineages) from July 2021 to December 2021, and Omicron (B.1.1.529 and BA lineages) from January 2022 to September 2022.
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COVID-19 vaccines were developed, tested in clinical trials, and received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval under emergency use authorization (EUA) starting on December 11, 2020. Beginning on December 14, 2020, SDDOH implemented a phased roll-out of the FDA EUA-approved COVID-19 vaccines (Phase 1A-E), as shown in Table 2.
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On April 5, 2021, all South Dakotans aged 16 years and older became eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine (Phase 2). The age for COVID-19 vaccine eligibility decreased to 12–15 year olds on May 12, 2021, to 5–11 year olds on November 2, 2021, and to 6 month–4 year olds on June 17, 2022. A COVID-19 booster dose (monovalent) was approved for adults on November 19, 2021, and expanded to 12–15 year olds on January 3, 2022, and 5–11 year olds on May 17, 2022 to provide continued protection against COVID-19 and account for waning immunity. A COVID-19 Omicron booster dose (bivalent) was approved for persons aged 12 years and older on September 2, 2022 to provide continued protection against new virus variants of COVID-19. As of September 10, 2022, the rate of COVID-19 coverage reported to SDDOH is shown in Figure 1.
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Note: Data were limited to COVID-19 vaccine doses administered by South Dakota medical providers and reported in the South Dakota Immunization Information System (SDIIS). Federally-administered doses, such as those administered by the Indian Health Service, Department of Defense, Veteran’s Affairs Medical Centers, or Bureau of Prisons, were not reported to SDIIS.
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On February 28, 2022, CDC issued guidance that recommended against universal case investigation and contact tracing in favor of prioritizing groups and settings at increased risk of COVID-19 infection9. SDDOH followed CDC guidance throughout the pandemic and adopted this guidance in late March, which marked a turning point in the COVID-19 pandemic response. Figure 2 shows the COVID-19 rate over the two and a half years of the pandemic.
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Similar to the distribution of COVID-19 cases, cases among high risk populations are shown for college and university students (Figure 3), long-term care residents (Figure 4), and correctional staff and
residents (Figure 5).
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There are still many individual, community, health care, and public health challenges that will continue to arise from ongoing transmission of COVID-19 now and into the future because COVID-19 is not going away. While cases, hospitalizations, and deaths will continue to occur, there have been signs of the transition of COVID-19 from pandemic to endemic disease, or when infections are not causing significant disruption to our daily lives. The signs have included increased availability of antigen self-tests so persons are awareness of infections, decreased number of persons currently hospitalized after the initial introduction of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, fewer poor health outcomes due to immunity acquired through cycles of boosting (vaccination [preferred] or infection) followed by waning over time, prevention of infections and severe outcomes by staying up-to-date with your COVID-19 vaccine, availability of medical treatment (monoclonal antibodies or antivirals) to decrease the severity of infection, and ability of persons to minimize their risk using everyday preventive activities.
Every one of us has a role to ensure the safety of ourselves, our family, and our community. The COVID-19 pandemic has made us acutely aware of this responsibility to our society.
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References
1. Mousavizadeh L, Ghasemi S. Genotype and phenotype of COVID-19: Their roles in pathogenesis. J. Microbiol Immunol Infect. 2020. DOI:10.1016/j.jmii.2020.03.022.
2. Hernandez MM, Gonzalez-Reiche AS, Alshammary H. et al. Molecular evidence of SARS-CoV-2 in New York before the first pandemic wave. Nat Commun. 2021;12,3463. DOI:10.1038/s41467-021-23688-7
3. Cummings DAT, Radonovich LJ, Gorse GJ, Gaydos CA, Bessesen MT, Brown AC, Gibert CL, Hitchings MDT, Lessler J, Nyquist AC, et al. Risk factors for healthcare personnel infection with endemic coronaviruses (HKU1, OC43, NL63, 229E): Results from the respiratory protection effectiveness clinical trial (ResPECT). Clin Infect Dis. 2020. DOI:10.1093/cid/ciaa900.
4. Corman VM, Muth D, Niemeyer D, Drosten C. Hosts and Sources of Endemic Human Coronaviruses. Adv Virus Res. 2018;163–188. DOI: 10.1016/bs.aivir.2018.01.001
5. Wang C, Horby PW, Hayden FG, Gao GF. A novel coronavirus outbreak of global health concern. Lancet. 2020;395,470–473. DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30185-9.
6. Rasmussen AL. On the origins of SARS-CoV-2. Nat Med. 2021;27,9. DOI:
10.1038/s41591-020-01205-5
7. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 2022. CDC Museum COVID-19 Timeline
https://www.cdc.gov/museum/timeline/covid19.html
8. World Health Organization (WHO). WHO coronavirus disease (COVID-19) dashboard https://covid19.who.int
9. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Interim Guidance on Developing a COVID-19 Case Investigation & Contact Tracing Plan: Overview. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/contact-tracing/contact-tracing-plan/overview.html (Last updated February 28, 2022).
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