North Dakota health officials say hospitalizations due to complications from the coronavirus reached another new high. The Saturday report showed that 240 people were being treated in medical facilities across the state, an increase of 20 since Thursday. There were 12 staffed intensive care beds and 158 staffed inpatient beds available in North Dakota. The state reported 15 additional deaths, lifting the total number of fatalities to 628 since the pandemic began. There were 2,060 new cases per 100,000 people in North Dakota over the past two weeks, which ranks first in the country for new cases per capita.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — North Dakota and South Dakota have the nation’s worst rate of coronavirus deaths per capita in the last 30 days. Despite advances in treating coronavirus patients, hundreds more people in the Dakotas have died in recent weeks than during any other time of the pandemic. It serves as a grim exclamation point on the virus outbreak slamming the Upper Midwest and northern Plains, with few signs of slowing down. As winter approaches and hospitals scramble to make room for coronavirus patients, physicians and medical experts worry that the deaths will continue to climb in a region where people have been slow to adopt mitigation measures like wearing masks.