Department of Health restores contact tracing efforts
Staff Report
BISMARCK, N.D. – Effective immediately, the North Dakota Department of Health is reinstating contact tracing for all individuals who test positive for COVID-19. Contact tracers notify individuals who have been within 6 feet of someone who tested positive for COVID-19 for more than 15 minutes in a 24-hour period, so they can quarantine.
In October, the NDDoH asked individuals to self-notify their close contacts in an effort to focus on case investigation due to the surge in positive cases. Contact tracing continued for K-12 schools, universities and health care settings.
“Active cases and hospitalizations across North Dakota continue to decrease, and that’s promising,” said Disease Control Director Kirby Kruger. “To keep our numbers and hospital capacity manageable, we need individuals to continue to isolate when they test positive and quarantine when they are a close contact. This is key, along with
Earlier today, the North Dakota Department of Health reported a net decrease in hospitalizations of 117 individuals. Hospitalizations in the state have fallen rapidly in the past few weeks, and while much of this difference reflects newly discharged cases, part of this drop reflects a quality control effort as case workers catch up with these changes following a recent surge in cases.
Of the 146 hospitalizations whose status was changed from current to discharged, 74 had been discharged in the past two weeks and the remainder were discharged prior to Dec. 1. This was due to a variety of factors, including case managers catching up with follow-up work after a surge of new cases in November; lags in reporting between when patients were actually discharged from facilities to when the NDDoH was notified of the discharges through the Health Information Network; and inconsistent data entry.
COVID-19 Test Results
The results listed are from the previous day. Additional data can be found on the NDDoH website.
On Wednesday, Dec. 16, the North Dakota Department of Health reported a net decrease in hospitalizations of 117 individuals. Hospitalizations in our state have fallen rapidly in the past few weeks, and while much of this difference reflects newly discharged cases, part of this drop reflects a quality control effort as case workers catch up with these changes following a recent surge in cases.
Of the 146 hospitalizations whose status was changed from current to discharged, 74 had been discharged in the past two weeks and the remainder were discharged prior to Dec. 1. This was due to a variety of factors, including case managers catching up with follow-up work after a surge of new cases in November; lags in reporting between when patients were actually discharged from facilities to when the NDDoH was notified of the discharges through the Health Information Net