Jamestown  (CVHD)  – COVID is circulating and people should get vaccinated because there is still a high risk of contracting coronavirus, according to Kim Lee, director of nursing at Central Valley Health District.

“There are hardly any mitigation strategies going on right now,” Lee said. “it is still important to be vaccinated, and if you are sick stay home. If you are out in the community and don’t feel well, you should be wearing a mask not just for COVID but also for influenza. It’s still circulating right now.”

For the week of April 8-14, Stutsman County had five positive cases of coronavirus, according to information from the North Dakota Department of Health. As of April 15, there were 267 new positive cases in North Dakota.

Lee said the number of cases could be down because people are self-testing at home and not reporting the cases. She also said when people don’t feel well, they are not getting tested at a testing site.

“They are just going to stay home due to all the education of how important it is to stay home when you are sick,” she said. “But also, vaccine rates continue to climb for vaccination rates and that helps control the spread of disease.”

She said state employees are conducting the tests from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at the Jamestown Civic Center.

“We are going to continue that until they tell us that the state can’t help us anymore with it, then we will have to look at what we are going to do with testing,” she said.

Central Valley Health has been administering COVID vaccines Mondays and Fridays at its office. Lee said Central Valley Health has seen an increase in people getting the vaccine. She said some days Central Valley Health was only administering 10 vaccines but now it is up in the 20s.

“We are still doing some first doses for people,” she said. “We are still doing some second doses. Then we’ve had people come in for their first booster, second booster. It’s kind of a mix right now.”

Lee said Central Valley Health recommends the second booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNtech or Moderna vaccines that was approved for people 50 and older. She said individuals 50 and older really need to get the second booster dose.

“People younger than that are not showing that they necessarily need that booster,” she said.