Bismarck   (CSi)  Governor Doug Burgum held his daily COVID-19 News Briefing, Tuesday afternoon, from the state capital in Bismarck.

https://www.facebook.com/ndhealth/videos/230738714927038/

 

Also speaking were Commissioner Michelle Kommer and Department of Human Services (DHS) Executive Director Chris Jones to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic in North Dakota

With updates on testing from the State Health Department:

Tuesday, April 21, 2020 – 11:18am

Categories: Coronavirus

COUNTIES WITH POSITIVE CASES

  • Cass County – 10
  • Grand Forks County – 5
  • Morton County – 1
  • Mountrail County – 1
  • Sioux County – 1

 

BY THE NUMBERS

14,987 – Total Tested (+240 individuals from yesterday)

14,343 – Negative (+223 individuals from yesterday)

644 – Positive (+18 individuals from yesterday)

* Please note that a previously reported positive case from Cass County was from out of state and was removed from our positive total.

54 – Hospitalized (+1 individuals from yesterday)

17 – Currently Hospitalized (+0 individuals from yesterday)

214 – Recovered (+25 individuals from yesterday)

13 – Deaths (+0 individual from yesterday)

 

Department of Human Services (DHS) Executive Director Chris Jones  discussed the COVID-19 pandemic in North Dakota.

He said when care givers become positive with the virus, DHS will be working more closely with those providers.  He pointed out the agency will be working with transferring residents, that are positive.

Tuesday  Burgum and the North Dakota Department of Health (NDDoH) in partnership with ProudCrowd, announced that the Care19 app is now available for Android users to help slow the spread of COVID-19 in North Dakota.

Care19 was recently launched to help the NDDoH reduce the spread of COVID-19 by more efficiently and effectively identifying individuals who may have had contact with people who have tested positive. This app is completely voluntary and developed with a privacy-first mindset. The information collected is not associated with a phone number or any personal information.

Care19 will become a hub of key information in the state as continued enhancements will include infection statistics, a symptom checker, a test site finder and more. ProwdCrowd continues to improve the app and the latest version updates include:

With Step by step reopening: Burgum introduced ND Commerce Commissioner Michelle Kommer.  She said, the commerce department is working with businesses on reopening, forming working groups of businesses closed by executive order.  She said the state will determine a time to reopen concerning when it’s safe, in not continuing to spread the virus.

With unemployment, the latest claim numbers are 1329, and 470 pandemic claims.

Since March 16, 2020 to Tuesday, a total of 53,773 claims have been made.

An executive order was signed giving local health officers more authority responding to COVID-19 positive individuals regarding isolation or quarantining.

He said 1100 individuals are being supported in the area of behavioral health.

A North Dakota company is working with universities and a medical school on using unmanned aerial vehicles in the fight against the coronavirus. SkySkopes, based in Grand Forks, has launched demonstrations to show a variety of ways in which its drones could be used in the pandemic.

In other news…

Burgum  called an emergency meeting to discuss ways to aid the state’s oil producers that are wracked by falling oil prices due to meager demand amid the coronavirus outbreak. The three-member, all-Republican North Dakota Industrial Commission headed by Burgum discussed options Tuesday. The Republican governor has said one option is to consider classifying oil and natural gas produced at a loss a “waste.” By doing so, producers would not be penalized under state rules for cutting production. The price of U.S. benchmark crude that would be delivered in May fell to historic lows Monday.