S.D. House Speaker battles COVID-19: 'It's been the most devastating stuff I've ever had'

Joe Sneve
Sioux Falls Argus Leader
Steven Haugaard is running for a seat in the Statehouse representing District 10.

A high-ranking lawmaker in South Dakota had a case of COVID-19 that sent him to the emergency room twice this month.

Speaker of the House Steve Haugaard, R-Sioux Falls, told the Argus Leader Monday that he spent the last two weeks dealing with a severe case of the coronavirus that's infected thousands of South Dakotans in recent months.

"It's been the most devastating stuff I've ever had in my life," said the 64-year-old Sioux Falls attorney. 

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Haugaard is at least the second South Dakota legislator to be diagnosed with COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic earlier this year. State Rep. Bob Glanzer, R-Huron, was among the first South Dakotans to contract and die from the virus. 

Haugaard and dozens of other lawmakers convened in Pierre earlier this month for a special session of the Legislature to formally authorize Gov. Kristi Noem to spend more than a billion dollars in federal pandemic relief funds. 

But Haugaard couldn't say where he contracted the virus because he'd been around different people in different settings in the days before he began showing symptoms, he said.

He said his symptoms included loss of appetite and daily fevers ranging between 100 and 105 degrees that prompted a pair of trips to the emergency room.

"I couldn’t eat so I've lost about 16 pounds," Haugaard said.

Hauggard said his fever finally broke Friday, and he intends to return to work this week.