Special Report

This Is the County in the Sioux Falls, SD Metro Area With the Most COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: September 21, 2021 4:45 am

As the delta variant continues to surge, COVID-19 continues to spread through the population. To date, there have been 41,395,400 reported cases of the virus nationwide — and that number is growing every day.

In the Sioux Falls metropolitan area, located in South Dakota, a total of 45,933 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 17,982 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — above the national rate of 12,653 cases per 100,000 people.

The higher than average per capita COVID-19 infection rate across Sioux Falls is being driven by a high concentration of the virus in one area in particular.

The broader Sioux Falls metro area comprises four counties or county equivalents, which can include independent cities — and of them, Minnehaha County has the most COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 34,380 infections in Minnehaha County, or 18,410 for every 100,000 people.

A relatively high infection rate does not necessarily mean COVID-19 related fatalities per capita are higher in Minnehaha County than they are across all of the Sioux Falls area, however. There have been a total of 199 coronavirus deaths for every 100,000 people in Minnehaha County, in line with 209 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Sioux Falls metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of Sept. 17, 2021.

These are all the counties in South Dakota where COVID-19 is slowing (and where it’s still getting worse).