North Dakota coronavirus cases rise sharply

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.

Read more: https://www.minotdailynews.com/news/local-news/2020/04/north-dakota-coronavirus-cases-rise-sharply/