Governor Burgum and various health officials gave a press conference discussing the problematic trajectory for COVID in North Dakota right now. I thought I would post a few charts to try and help make clear the issue. The data here go all the way back to the beginning of COVID in North Dakota. In fact they go back to 2 days prior to the first positive test.
Still well below peak levels the trajectory of cases in North Dakota is problematic. It is clearly moving as if to start a new climb and is essentially at levels now not seen until closer to October in 2020. That is, we are ahead of the pace for last year. The Governor made excellent points about the available resources being tighter now than last year. Hospitals discussed lower staff levels than last year as well. This makes it difficult to see how problems would not be more severe than last year if another spike in cases occurs. Hospitalizations are also an issue.
The active hospitalizations are clearly on the rise, consistent with the general reporting about the Delta variant being more transmissible and apparently making people sicker than other variants. This is all pretty bad news against the backdrop of surges in cases around the country and the concerns about variants weighing on the consumers.
