Foster, Griggs, LaMoure<\/strong>, Mercer, McIntosh, Nelson, Renville, Traill, Walsh and Wells. Burgum urged residents in those counties not to become complacent, noting the additional risk inherent with students returning to school and creating more transmissible moments for the coronavirus.<\/p>\nThe changes in risk level were based on three main criteria: 14-day rolling average of active cases per 10,000 people, 14-day rolling average of tests performed per 10,000 people and 14-day rolling average percent positive rate.<\/p>\n
The county-by-county risk levels will take effect at 5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 4. For those moving from low risk to moderate risk, the recommendation for capacity in bars and restaurants decreases from 75 percent to 50 percent and the recommendation for large gatherings would decrease from 75 percent occupancy up to 500 attendees, to 50 percent occupancy up to 250 attendees.<\/p>\n
Despite a recent surge in active cases, because of its robust testing program, North Dakota\u2019s test positivity rate remained under 5% until this week, when the White House\u2019s weekly report to states classified North Dakota as being in the \u201cyellow zone\u201d for test positivity at over 5%, which is consistent with data tracked by the state. Thursday\u2019s action aligns with the White House\u2019s recommendation to adjust the state coronavirus risk level for highly affected counties to reflect persistently high and increasing reported cases.<\/p>\n
While the state\u2019s COVID-19 hospitalizations remain relatively low at 67 today, Burgum stressed that hospitalizations are a lagging indicator, not a leading indicator. Southern states that experienced surges in cases among 15- to 29-year-olds earlier this summer, as North Dakota is seeing now, saw those surges followed by increases in the older adult populations, increased hospitalizations and mortality rates, he noted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe said we\u2019re going to be targeted and we\u2019re going to be proactive. We\u2019re doing both of those things today,\u201d Burgum said.<\/p>\n
The governor urged college students to make use of available COVID-19 testing and to stay on campus or in their campus communities during the Labor Day weekend to avoid potentially spreading COVID-19 to other areas, as young people are more likely to be asymptomatic and unknowingly transmit the virus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bismarck\u00a0 (CSi)\u2013 Gov. Doug Burgum Thursday announced changes to the COVID-19 risk levels for 21 of North Dakota\u2019s 53 counties under the ND Smart Restart plan, stressing the need to reverse the state\u2019s upward trend of active coronavirus cases and positive test rate. Eight counties \u2013 Barnes, Benson, Burleigh, Grand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":207294,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=207290"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207298,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207290\/revisions\/207298"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/207294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=207290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=207290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=207290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/risk-level-no-meter-300x212.png\")
Bismarck\u00a0 (CSi)\u2013 Gov. Doug Burgum Thursday announced changes to the COVID-19 risk levels for 21 of North Dakota\u2019s 53 counties under the ND Smart Restart plan, stressing the need to reverse the state\u2019s upward trend of active coronavirus cases and positive test rate.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Risk-Level-County-Map-9-2020-300x183.jpg\")
Thirteen counties are moving from the low risk level to the \u201cnew normal,\u201d or blue risk level<\/strong>: Billings, Cavalier, Divide, Foster, Griggs, LaMoure<\/strong>, Mercer, McIntosh, Nelson, Renville, Traill, Walsh and Wells. Burgum urged residents in those counties not to become complacent, noting the additional risk inherent with students returning to school and creating more transmissible moments for the coronavirus.<\/p>\n