North Dakota’s active COVID-19 cases fall, down by a third from October peak – Grand Forks Herald

The North Dakota Department of Health reported a drop in active cases on a low testing day Monday. Statewide case numbers often fall on Mondays following low weekend testing, but North Dakota has seen a consistent decline in virus positives over the last two weeks following a recent high of over 4,500 active cases on Oct. 6.

North Dakota's delta death toll, however, has continued to mount as statewide virus levels have declined. Virus deaths tend to lag behind case surges, and North Dakota reported four new virus deaths since the end of last week, adding to what has already been the state's deadliest month of the pandemic in 2021.

The health department reports that 92 people have died with COVID-19 in the month of October, a larger count than in August and September combined. Hospital beds remain scarce in the state as health care centers have struggled to balance staffing shortages, rising delta cases and noncoronavirus admissions.

The following are COVID-19 case rates, deaths and hospitalizations tracked by the North Dakota Department of Health as of Monday, Oct. 25. Because all data are preliminary, some numbers and totals may change from one day to the next.

Cass County, which encompasses Fargo, had the most known active cases on Monday, with 677 cases. Burleigh County, which includes Bismarck, had 409 active cases, and Ward County, which includes Minot, had 292.

As of Monday, children under 12, an age group that is not yet eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, accounted for 555 of the state's active cases. More than a quarter of North Dakota's active cases are in residents under 20 years old.

The state's 14-day rolling average positivity rate is 7.0%, down from over 8% earlier this month.

At 173 people, virus hospitalizations remain high in North Dakota, though they have fallen from recent highs in the 200s earlier this month. There were just 17 available staffed ICU beds statewide in the most recent hospital reports to a health department database, with nine ICU beds and nine inpatient beds available between Fargo's three hospitals. There were no available ICU beds or inpatient beds in Bismarck's two hospitals, according to the most recent reporting.

FIRST DOSE ADMINISTERED*: 376,595 (56.5% of population ages 12 and up)

FULL VACCINE COVERAGE*: 351,756 (52.8% of population ages 12 and up)

*These figures come from the state's vaccine dashboard, though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which includes vaccinations performed at federal sites, reports slightly higher vaccination rates.

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Readers can reach reporter Adam Willis, a Report for America corps member, at awillis@forumcomm.com.

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North Dakota's active COVID-19 cases fall, down by a third from October peak - Grand Forks Herald