Metro

It started slow. Very slow. Then the number of people with coronavirus began to climb. So did the concern.

Eventually, the North Dakota Department of Health updated coronavirus information on their website and on Facebook, a sort of macabre scoreboard of COVID-19 versus state residents. As 2020 drew to a close, the total active cases of COVID-19 in the state were on the decline but the number of deaths attributed to the pandemic had soared past 1,000.

On March 19, State Health reported 19 positive cases of coronavirus in North Dakota. One person was hospitalized with COVID-19 complications and another 45 were being monitored. Also in March the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. But by the end of the year, more than 215 countries around the world would be affected by the virus.

While some areas of the country were experiencing severe outbreaks in early 2020, the results of which remained unknown, North Dakota stepped up the testing of people for COVID-19. Total tests by the end of April reached nearly 30,000, positive cases topped 1,000, more than 30 were hospitalized across the state and the death toll attributed to coronavirus reached 19. A month later total deaths were more than 60 as the seriousness of the virus became more and more apparent.

Coronavirus continued to spread in the state during the summer with 103 deaths reported at the end of July and another 50 people hospitalized. While the elderly and those with pre-existing health conditions were identified as the most vulnerable to the virus, there were a number of unexpected deaths too. By mid-August the death count reached 122.

The number of active coronavirus cases in Ward County was 218 at the end of September, considered a very manageable number. At the same time Burleigh County, where the state capitol of Bismarck is located, had surged to over 700 active cases. It was an indicator that a statewide spike in COVID-19 cases was imminent. And it was.

Ward County’s active coronavirus virus count pushed well over 900 by late October, Burleigh County over 1,200 and Cass County was only a few cases behind Burleigh. Active case numbers were on the rise in many other counties as well as concern over COVID-19 continued to grow. However, a month later the numbers began to show some improvement all across the state, fueling optimism that perhaps the worst had passed.

One week into December Minot’s active case count slipped under 400. Statewide, more than 1 million coronavirus tests had been given. Indicators from every county showed that COVID-19 was on the decline as people practiced social distancing and other preventive measures against an unseen enemy.

By mid-December the number of people hospitalized had dropped by nearly 150 in a single week. All indications were the virus was being managed, but certainly had not disappeared. Business restrictions and other measures, such as limiting the size of gatherings, continued even as the first doses of vaccine to combat COVID-19 were being distributed throughout the state.

As 2020 was drawing to a close no one was under the illusion that the COVID-19 pandemic was over, but there was at least some cause for hope that the pandemic would subside enough sometime in 2021 that certain precautions would no longer be considered necessary.