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Kevin Woster: The Pandemic From Rapid City

Lori Walsh

In The Moment ... April 23, 2020 Show 802 Hour 1

On March 27, Rapid City enacted an ordinance that called for the closure of most city businesses to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus and help buy time for area health care workers to prepare for a surge in COVID-19 cases. It was one of the earliest and toughest set of restrictions in the state. 
 
Since March, Pennington County has 11 confirmed cases of the disease, eight people have fully recovered and the state Department of Health reports 355 negative tests in the county.
 
(By contrast, in Minnehaha County, 1,555 people have tested positive, 723 have fully recovered, and 4817 people have tested negative.)
 
Mayor Steve Allender says since the projections have changed, and hospitals have had time to prepare for a surge, the time has come to consider what business can look like in the city in the days ahead. 
 
Kevin Woster writes the blog, "On the Other Hand," for SDPB. You can find it online at SDPB.org/Woster. Like so many of us, he's been navigations the world of grocery stores and sidewalks and hiking trails of South Dakota, and he finds that not everyone behaves the same way when it comes to protecting others from an extraordinarily contagious disease. 

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