Doctors, nurses, caregivers carried South Dakota through challenging year Written By: Erik Kaufman | Nick Sabato | Marcus Traxler | 8:00 am, Jan. 2, 2021 ×
Avera Queen of Peace registered nurses Emily Feldhaus and Kristi Riggs stand for a portrait in the Mitchell hospital s entryway. (Matt Gade / Republic)
Facing a deadly threat, health care workers defended and treated sick South Dakotans unlike ever before in 2020.
They were the people who treated the nearly 100,000 people who tested positive for COVID-19 and took care of more than 5,000 individuals who were hospitalized. Frontline health care workers were at the bedside of the 1,488 individuals who died as a result of the coronavirus, oftentimes alone.