October 12, 2020 at 3:00 p.m.
North Dakota is running low on ICU beds as cases continue to rise in the state
With Marisa Ayati and Jacqueline Dupree
Some North Dakota hospitals are struggling to see an increase in coronavirus cases that began there in July and a public health official showed no signs of beating them. Told CNN on Monday.
Rena Mock, director of Bismarck-Burlih Public Health, told the TV network that about 20 intensive-care unit beds were available throughout North Dakota and that some rural hospitals had to send patients to other facilities, including South Dakota and Montana. .
State data As of Monday, there were 240 non-ICU beds available in North Dakota. According to the Washington Post’s tracking, the number of existing hospitals in the state has risen to 158, a record and fast increase from 112 on this day last week.
Lack of strict state-level guidelines has made it difficult to reduce the spread of the virus, Mock told CNN. North Dakota has not made it mandatory to wear a mask in public.
“We have been given a message from the state level that when it comes to wearing masks and bridging social distances, there is a way to become a person of personal responsibility,” Mock said. “People continue to operate as if they had Kovid here. And this is leading to an increase in our numbers. ”
Mock told CNN that people are also refusing to cooperate with contract tracers by sharing the identities of their close contacts and whether they have recently attended a large gathering.
North Dakota leads the United States in per capita cases in the last seven days, with an increase of 458 cases per 100,000 people before the increase of 458 in South Dakota and 361 cases in Montona. In addition, North Dakota’s seven-day average breast augmentation has been a new high for seven straight days, and the number of deaths breast amalgamation set a record on Monday.
