PIERRE — Lyman County is one of six South Dakota Counties with a confirmed case of a Covid-19 variant. The South Dakota Department of Health says the B-1-1-7 variant, the U-K Strain was found in Lyman, Minnehaha, Pennington and Brookings County. The B-1-351 or South African Strain was also confirmed in Brookings County and Roberts County has confirmed cases of B-1-429, which is the California Strain. So far in South Dakota there have been one case of the South African and five of the California. The total number of Covid variant cases in South Dakota is now at 14. The currently available Covid-19 vaccines have indicated some reduced effectiveness in stopping the variants, but vaccines continue to be safe and offer good protection. State Epidemiologist Dr. Josh Clayton says the Health Department has been watching for the variants and says mitigation efforts like hand washing, social distancing and staying home when sick will help slow the variant spread.
