SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO.com) — A new group of South Dakotans is eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine starting today.
The group includes people 80 or older, those with serious health conditions like cancer or kidney failure, and high-risk residents in congregate living.
It’s a segment of Group 1D in the state’s vaccine rollout. People aged 65 to 79, teachers and those with two or more underlying health conditions are also in that group but will have to wait until more doses come in to become eligible.
Group 1D is the fourth of five priority groups in South Dakota’s vaccine rollout plan. Health care workers, those who live and work in nursing homes, law enforcement, and others were eligible for vaccine doses before Monday. As of Sunday, the state had administered 56,625 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to about 46,000 people, one of the highest per capita vaccination rates in the country.
Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken expressed his support for the vaccination campaign in a Sunday night Facebook Live video.
“It’d be great if we had unlimited vaccine vials, unlimited doses. We don’t have that,” TenHaken said. “We have to take what we’re getting and allocate that accordingly based on the highest levels of need in the population.”
South Dakota has largely let its major health systems take the lead on the vaccine rollout, something TenHaken praised for cutting down on government “red tape.”
(Liz Ryan, KELO.com News, contributed to this report.)
