SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (WNAX) – A group of health care systems and organizations, school boards and others are joining to ask people to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

Dr Benjamin Aaker, President of the South Dakota State Medical Association, says people need to take the threat seriously.

Aaker says they are promoting their request as “Mask Up South Dakota.”

Aaker says rising numbers of infections are threatening hospitals and other providers.

The state is now reporting over eleven thousand active cases and almost four hundred people in hospitals.