(MOBRIDGE) While news broke of 71,000 new cases of influenza in New York, South Dakota on the other hand saw a small decrease in the number of positive Rapid Antigen Tests. Since the beginning of the 2025-26 season South Dakota has had 1480 confirmed cases with the majority of those being Type A, Un specified. 73 have been hospitalized and there have been no deaths reported so far this season which officially ends May 31, 2026. According to the SD Department of Health website (doh.sd.gov) there were fewer confirmed cases for the week of December 27, 2025 with total of 505 new cases. 144 fewer cases than the 649 reported the week of December 20th. Minnehaha County has the most cases of influenza with 492, Ogalala Lakota 216, Lincoln County 160, Pennington County 142, Brookings County 82, Brown County 74 and Codington County 35.  Walworth County has zero cases with a 4.65% Rapid Antigen Test Positive. Potter County also has zero positive cases. Corson and Ziebach Counties 1 case each, Campbell and Dewey Counties 2, Edmunds and McPherson 3 and Hughes County 7. The SD Department of Health releases it’s new report each Wednesday at  www.doh.sd.gov Types of Influenza in South Dakota are Type A B Unspecified, Type A, H3 and Type A, H1. The dominant variant hitting the United States this season is known as Type A(H3N2) subclade K which has raised concerns about a potential mismatch and reduced vaccine effectiveness against this particular strain. ...read more read less