The death of a 60-year-old man from coronavirus marks the first COVID-19 fatality linked to the motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, the Washington Post reports.
The unidentified biker from Minnesota, who had underlying health issues, had been in intensive care since a couple days after returning from the rally, which drew 400,000 to the small town. To date, more than 260 coronavirus infections in 11 states have been directly linked to people who attended the rally, but public health say that is likely a significant undercount because of poor contact tracing.
The rally ran through August 16th, and cell phone tracers have tracked people who attended the rally to no less than 61% of counties throughout the US. South Dakota itself has seen a 300% increase in the 7-day running average of new cases since the beginning of the rally.