North Dakota National Guard helps with test results
FILE - In this April 10, 2020, file photo, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum speaks at the state Capitol in Bismarck, N.D. Hospitalizations from COVID-19 have hit their highest points recently throughout the Midwest, where the growth in new cases has been the worst in the nation. Doug Burgum, North Dakota's Republican governor, acknowledges his state's numbers are moving in the wrong direction as it hit new highs for active and newly confirmed cases, as well as hospitalizations. But he's also touting the state's test positivity staying in the 7% range.[Mike McCleary/The Bismarck Tribune via AP, File]
North Dakota’s coronavirus cases are rising so fast, the Republican governor is deploying the National Guard to notify people of positive test results.
Gov. Doug Burgum and the North Dakota Department of Health announced they’re shifting 50 National Guard members who had worked in contract tracing to notify people who test positive. It’s been taking health officials up to three days to notify people after they’ve tested positive, the department said.
Public health officials will no longer notify close contacts of people who tested positive; instead those individuals will be instructed to self-notify close contacts and direct them to the department’s website.
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North Dakota’s 1,224 new cases of the coronavirus per 100,000 people in the past two weeks is the highest per capita in the nation, according to data by Johns Hopkins University.
The state’s numbers have prompted questions over how Burgum, a former Microsoft executive up for re-election, has handled the coronavirus. He’s asked citizens to voluntarily wear masks.
Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney, a surgeon, has called for a mask mandate statewide. The mayor says there’s “better compliance if it’s the whole state.”