COVID-19 cases spiking again in Swift County, state

By Reed Anfinson

Publisher

In the first 14 days of March, Swift County saw 16 new cases of   COVID-19, however, in the last 15 days it has seen a sharp increase with 43 additional cases.
The 59 cases as of March 29 is approaching four times the number of cases seen in February when there were just 16.
Last week, Swift County-Benson Health Services performed 40 COVID-19 tests in a single day with a high positivity rate, Co-CEO Dan Enderson told the governing board at its meeting Monday night.
 Last week, it did the most testing and saw the highest number of positive results since mid-November, he said.

Mid-November was the peak of COVID-19 cases in Minnesota and in Swift County. It also was followed a few weeks later by the highest number of deaths.
November 14, the state saw 8,703 cases in a single day, the most it recorded until Nov. 28 when it saw a record 8,953 cases. During that same period, Swift County was adding as many as 20 cases per day and saw its record month with 368 cases.
Eight of the county’s 18 deaths occurred in December. Deaths from COVID-19 general lag new cases by several weeks.
“So, the trend is not good and today was also a relatively busy day for testing, too,” Enderson said.
To our north, Pope County has also seen a significant spike in cases. It has more than doubled the number of cases it saw in January and February combined. It saw 63 in January and 47 in February for a total of 110. It has recorded 120 cases as of March 29.

Increasing COVID-19 Case Numbers on the Rise
                2020-21
County    3/29    Feb    Jan    Total
Swift    59    16    73    938
Stevens    33    30    39    774
Big Stone    26    45    32    26
Pope    120    47    63    922
Chippewa    56    26    56    1,419
Lac qui Parle    33    18    58    716

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