US election judge supervisor dies after testing positive for Covid-19

North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum said in a news conference, “today, statistically, marks the worst day yet for North Dakota during the pandemic.”

Thursday’s 9,224 active cases record is the first time the US state surpassed a daily count of 9,000, he said. The 16.4 positivity over the last seven days and hospitalization of 231 people are also record highs, he added.

The Covid-19 risk level was raised in a number of North Dakota counties, according to Burgum. 

“At the point we are right now,” he said, “no county in the state will have a designation lower than yellow,” which approaches the lower end of the Covid-19 risk level. 

At the same press conference, the Department of Human Services Executive Director Chris Jones said that due to an increase in hospitalizations across the country, there is no additional staff to bring in. 

“The level of surge is constrained by the number of available health care workers,” Jones said. 

Some hospital capacity constraints in the state are because of transfers in from Minnesota, South Dakota and Montana, according to Jones. 

Visibly emotional, Jones also discussed the strain being put on health systems, physicians, nurses and other hospital staff.

“For those of you who do not believe, go and talk to them. Ask them what it is like. Ask them about the impact it has on their family. Ask them about the impact it has on them as they treat patients with Covid and other citizens seeking care,” Jones said. 

The North Dakota Department of Health reported Thursday 1,540 new COVID-19 cases and 29 coronavirus related deaths, bringing the total number of deaths to 596 in the state. 

These numbers were released by the North Dakota Department of Health and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project