North Dakota saw its highest number of new coronavirus cases as of Thursday, with 46 people testing positive out of 638 tested, Gov. Doug Burgum said at his daily briefing on Friday.

That brings the total number of cases identified in the state to 439. Forty-seven have been hospitalized and 16 remain hospitalized. Nine people died and 172 people have recovered.

Burgum said it looks like positive cases in the state might be on an upward trend, since the number of new positive cases have increased each of the last three days. He said it is difficult to predict when North Dakota might hit a peak number of cases but he would rather see North Dakota have a steady rise in cases now than later. He said most of the population has complied with social distancing guidelines and other orders intended to slow the spread of the virus and the state has enough hospital capacity to care for people with serious complications of the virus.

The governor has said the state will need to meet a certain number of criteria before reopening businesses and schools or easing restrictions. Some of those criteria include the number of new cases going down at a steady rate and the availability of widespread testing and businesses adopting new procedures to protect against the spread of the virus.

Burgum said the state might also be seeing a higher number of positive tests because health officials are conducting “targeted testing” of people who have been in contact with someone who previously tested positive.

“In some ways you could say we’re looking for positives,” said Burgum.

Testing has been done this week of people at the LM Wind Power Plant in Grand Forks, where several employees tested positive for the virus.

Burgum also said nine out of 218 nursing or long-term care facilities in the state have had a staff member or resident test positive for coronavirus. Thirteen people tested positive at the Eventide Senior Living Facility in Fargo.

Burgum said the state is looking at doing more testing at nursing and long-term facilities. He said there might need to be a shift in the culture. Perhaps employees will need to work only with one group of residents at a facility instead of switching from one group to another, he said, or the state may need to test more providers who go in and out of these facilities. Visitation has already been restricted at nursing homes and long-term care facilities and residents are often isolated from each other.

The state has also placed a high priority on preventing an outbreak among vulnerable populations, so more testing has been conducted of people at those facilities who have been in contact with a person who tested positive. Once they are identified, people can receive medical treatment and be ordered to go into isolation and others they are in contact with can be quarantined.

The rate of new cases in Mountrail County, which had been considered a potential hot spot, has gone down because of the amount of testing conducted in the county and people who tested negative for the virus. Twenty-nine people tested positive for the virus in Mountrail out of 448 total tests.

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ND creates temporary shelter program

BISMARCK – On Friday, a multi-agency task force announced a new temporary shelter program in North Dakota for vulnerable individuals who are homeless and who cannot safely stay at existing homeless and domestic violence shelters because they have tested positive for COVID-19, are showing symptoms and awaiting test results, or need to be in quarantine because of recent travel to the state from hotspot areas.

“The new shelter and support program, which has been set up temporarily during this public health emergency, is currently serving 12 people in a couple of communities,” said North Dakota Department of Human Services’ Chief Operating Officer Sara Stolt, who chairs the multi-agency task force. “If needs grow, we are prepared to expand to serve homeless individuals who need to self-isolate in Bismarck, Devils Lake, Dickinson, Fargo, Grand Forks, Jamestown, Minot and Williston.”

To access the temporary shelter program, Stolt said, individuals must be referred by a homeless shelter, domestic violence shelter, hospital, public health unit or other partner agency. Local human service zone offices (formerly known as county social service offices) will work directly with any homeless individuals or families referred to the program. Individuals cannot refer themselves.