South Dakota is experiencing a jump in coronavirus infections and hospitalizations after this year’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally many times greater than seen at the same point after last year’s superspreader event, an analysis of state data shows.

South Dakota’s daily coronavirus cases have increased 685% from an average of 54 when the rally began on August 6 to 424 as of September 1, according to a tracker run by The New York Times.

New infections had only jumped by about 260% by this point after last year’s rally, which yielded a fraction of the estimated 700,000-person turnout of last month’s event due to pandemic restrictions, increasing from an average of 87 new daily cases the day the rally began to 313 at the start of September.

Hospitalizations are also outpacing the increase seen after last year’s rally, topping 200 with at least 40 on ventilators as of August 31, the largest number since mid-January.

Meanwhile, some 85 coronavirus patients were hospitalized across South Dakota as of August 31, 2020, The New York Times data shows.

New daily deaths are almost the same as they were at this point last year (an average of 1.4 per day compared to 0.9 in 2020), though this metric is known to lag and can take weeks to catch up to upticks in cases and hospitalizations.

Though cases were ticking upwards before the start of the rally, it was nowhere near the rate that they have been increasing in the weeks since. Cases and hospitalizations have both jumped by more than 100% each state-wide over the past two weeks, data compiled by The New York Times shows.

The coronavirus surge has impacted counties that were previously reporting very few cases, a recent analysis by the Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Argus Leader found. Pennington County, which neighbors Meade County, where the city of Sturgis is located, has seen Covid-19 cases increase from three per day at the start of July to almost 160. Meanwhile, the surrounding Black Hills region, which had very few active cases in early July, now houses more than half of the state’s intensive care patients with Covid-19, according to the Argus Leader. Many of these counties have vaccination rates below the state’s average of 49%. For example, inoculation rates range from 26% to 39% across the Black Hills region. South Dakota Department of Health spokesperson Daniel Bucheli highlighted last week that 97% of all new South Dakota Covid-19 cases, 93% of hospitalizations and 95% of deaths are among unvaccinated people.

Bucheli suggested to NBC News that the virus spikes are “following a national trend being experienced in every state” as opposed to being. aconsequence of the rally, which ended August 15.

South Dakota saw a big uptick in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations after last year’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which reportedly attracted more than 365,000 people for the 10-day event. The state did not (and still does not have) any coronavirus restrictions in place, such as mask or vaccination mandates. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ultimately linked 649 Covid-19 cases to last year’s event, though one study released weeks after the event suggested it may have caused more than 250,000.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has shook off criticism about the event, calling the study by economists “not factual whatsoever.” After top infectious disease official Dr. Anthony Fauci said he was “concerned” about this year’s event amid the spread of the delta variant, Noem accused him of targeting her state for political reasons.