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State prepares for worst case scenario

North Dakota officials have been working on a plan to handle a surge of coronavirus patients in the state that they hope they never have to use.

Currently, less than 1 percent of available hospital beds in the state are in use for coronavirus patients, Gov. Doug Burgum said during his daily briefing on Tuesday, and only 13 coronavirus patients in the state are hospitalized.

Chief Operating Officer Tammy Miller said that under the state plan the level of action required would move up in tiers. Under tier 1, hospitals would maintain current capacity, with current levels of staffing, equipment and supplies. If the numbers of coronavirus patients increased, a hospital might advance to tier 2A and increase the number of beds and would receive additional equipment from the state. The next level, 2b, would increase hospital capacity, with additional equipment, supplies, and staffing coming from the state. At tier 3, “minimum care facilities” would be set up to handle coronavirus patients who need to be hospitalized but who cannot be because there aren’t enough available beds.

Minimum care facilities would be located initially at the Fargodome and at the University of Mary in Bismarck. They have pre-positioned 200 beds at each site. The sites would be overseen by medical facilities in each city. If those facilities are overwhelmed with coronavirus patients, other sites would be set up in other regions, including at the Minot State University Dome in Minot, Lake Region State College gym in Devils Lake, Dickinson State University in Dickinson, University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, University of Jamestown in Jamestown, Williston State College in Williston

Miller said state officials do not expect that the state will ever have to set up the minimum care facilities at Level 3, with 7,500 beds for coronavirus patients in use, but it is best to be prepared for the worst case scenario.

Area hospitals and long-term care facilities are also creating their own plans for how to manage a surge in coronavirus patients.

There were 10 new cases of coronavirus identified as of Monday, bringing the total number of cases in the state to 341. Of those, 138 have recovered. Forty-two people have had to be hospitalized with the coronavirus. Of those, nine have died and 13 remain hospitalized. The others have been released from the hospital.

Burgum said the testing data was likely skewed because of the Easter holiday and fewer tests analyzed.

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