COVID-19 has killed one in every 1,000 North Dakotans
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/11/2020 (1761 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
BISMARCK, N.D. — The death toll from COVID-19 in this state hit 785 on Wednesday, meaning one in every 1,000 North Dakotans has died from the virus.
Even as the number of active cases dropped, North Dakota, which has a population of 762,000, continued to lead a surging outbreak across the United States.
North Dakota has reported more COVID-19 cases and deaths per capita than any state, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. A fall wave of the pandemic is sweeping the country, with national new case reports shattering records over the last two weeks.
North Dakota’s virus hospitalizations dropped on Wednesday, falling below 300 for the first time in more than a week. The state reported 1,275 new positive individuals in its latest report along with a high number of recoveries, bringing the state’s active case total to 9,977.
Even with the dip in hospitalization numbers, North Dakota is facing an extreme shortage of staffed beds, as COVID-19 hospitalizations converge with strains on health-care staffing and high non-coronavirus admissions. There were just 16 available intensive care beds and 179 regular inpatient beds in the state.
In an extraordinary move reported Tuesday, Sanford Health is opening a 20-bed COVID-19 surge unit separate from its Bismarck hospital. Hospital president Michael LeBeau told Forum News Service that its medical centre has reached capacity, expressing his hope that the emergency expansion will serve as “an eye-opener” for North Dakota residents.
With an average of 13 reported deaths per day this month, November is on track to be by far the deadliest month of the pandemic in North Dakota. Of the 16 people recorded dead Wednesday, many were older than 80 years old, three were in their 60s and two were in their 50s. The deaths came from eight counties.
Gov. Doug Burgum’s decision on Friday to enact a mask mandate was celebrated by members of the state’s medical community, many of whom had called on him to implement the mandate for months. Dr. Paul Carson, an infectious disease specialist who has consulted the state on its pandemic response strategy, welcomed the news and said he will look for a flattening of the state’s new case trajectory in the next two to four weeks to gauge whether the state should take additional mitigation measures.
— Forum News Service