For the second time in a row, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota became linked to heightened COVID-19 cases in the area, following a similar case last year, in 2020, with more than 460,000 people in attendance and was directly linked to over 400 COVID-19 cases.
Weeks later, reports say that the 2020 Sturgis Motorcycle event may have led to over 250,000 COVID-19 cases.
The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is an annual event attended by bikers that were originally held for stunts and races. This year, the rally hosted events like pub crawls, poker tournaments, and concerts, with performances by Yelawolf and All That Remains.
This year, more than 525,000 people gathered in South Dakota’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which was held from August 6 to August 15.
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During the 10 day event, reports say COVID-19 cases in the district have spiked with an average of 29 new cases in Meade County where Sturgis is located, and an average of 17 cases a day in neighboring county Lawrence.
These numbers may visually be small, but it is considerable for concern since the counties spent days before the rally without being able to record new COVID cases.
Meade County is a very small town, with a permanent population averaging only about 7,000 people.
The area also only has around 30% of its population vaccinated, which makes the Sturgis Motorcycle Event worrying because the guests of the event largely came from different places and without tracing, could potentially infect the rest of Meade County’s population.
Meade County also has little to no capacity restrictions and no mask and vaccination mandates.
Hospitals in Meade and Lawrence county reported a spike of up to 200% of hospitalizations since the event.
This comes after the looming terror of the highly transmissible Delta variant which has led to fuller hospitals and medical centers. Currently, doctors, nurses, and other medical staff are grappling with the rise in hospitalizations, of which the patients need routine care while dealing with other workplace challenges such as being understaffed.
