SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has shown no signs of budging from her hands-off approach to the pandemic. But she is among a dwindling number of Midwest governors holding out against mask mandates.
She also faces a death rate in her state that has risen to the highest in the nation this month.
South Dakota has reported 219 deaths in November.
That is about a third of all its deaths over the course of the entire pandemic.
The governor’s spokeswoman Maggie Seidel pushed back against arguments by public health experts that a mask mandate would dramatically reduce the spread of the virus