SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — There’s another change in COVID-19 case counts from the South Dakota Department of Health. 

Starting Monday, the state health department removed the “total persons negative” column from its COVID-19 Dashboard Tables tab. DOH spokesman Daniel Bucheli told KELOLAND News the department will provide a “Total Persons Tested” and “Total Tests Reported” table each month. 

For the month of July, the DOH says a total of 28,564 total tests were reported for a total of 10,114 total persons. Persons in high risk settings, like nursing homes, can be tested for COVID-19 multiple times. 

You can see a complete breakdown of the persons tested vs. total tests for the past 14 months in the graph below. 

The DOH says 504,449 total persons have been identified for having tested for COVID-19.

“The total persons negative was a cumulative number that was not informative to calculate persons tested on an ongoing basis (i.e., a person who tested negative twice since the beginning of the pandemic was only counted when the first negative test was received),” Bucheli said in an emailed statement. “Instead, the total persons and total tests data will be updated monthly to help provide information about how many people were tested.”

The DOH currently reports total tests (1,335,077) and the percent of progress for a monthly total testing goal of 44,233 tests.