PIERRE, S.D. (KELO.com) — Governor Kristi Noem has decided against two big COVID-related requests from Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken.
Noem says she is refusing the city’s request for a COVID “isolation camp” in Sioux Falls that could handle up to 7,000 potential cases. She says if cases can’t be isolated at home, they can be isolated in other ways.
“In a hotel room somewhere where they will have privacy, not somewhere like a camp in a convention center with 7,000 other people.”
City spokesman, TJ Nelson says TenHaken never gave the state any set number for an isolation center.
“The city along with Avera and Sanford would like to get permission to set up a facility where people can go if they test positive and don’t have a better alternative,” explains Nelson.
Governor Noem is also refusing TenHaken’s request for a state-directed stay-a-home order.
“I don’t believe it’s appropriate considering the data and the facts and the science that we have.”
But the mayor believes just the opposite, referring to the charts he’s looking at.
“This is not flattening of a curve. This is a spike. This is a pretty significant spike.”
Minnehaha County is, by far, South Dakota’s biggest coronavirus hotspot and The Smithfield Plant is the hottest spot in the hotspot.
(Todd Epp, KELO.com News, contributed to this report.)
