Ruling goes against a complaint made last year by the Grand Forks Herald. 5:09 pm, Apr. 19, 2021 ×
North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem
North Dakota’s attorney general has found that Grand Forks City Hall officials did not violate the state’s open meeting laws when they met quietly last summer to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the Grand Forks Herald’s assertion to the contrary.
The newspaper in September complained to Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, claiming that the meetings were of a committee of a public entity as defined in North Dakota Century Code. The city claimed they were not public, and Stenehjem ultimately sided with the city.
Grand Forks County is 39% of the way to coronavirus herd immunity goal
Grand Forks County public health workers believe the county will achieve herd immunity from a novel coronavirus if or when 60% of residents are fully vaccinated. 9:01 pm, Apr. 5, 2021 ×
Michael Dulitz, of the Grand Forks Public Health Department, gives a pandemic update to the City Council during a meeting in October. Eric Hylden / Grand Forks Herald
Grand Forks County is nearly halfway to herd immunity, a key threshold that public health workers hope to meet or exceed as they work to contain a novel coronavirus.
As of Sunday, April 4, 16,320 county residents have either received both doses of a Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine or the only needed dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. That’s 39.2% of the 41,671 people needed to reach “herd immunity,” a term that means enough people have been vaccinated against the virus and left it nowhere to go, epidemiologically speaking,
I will rescind my health officer’s mask order in Grand Forks County if we have 14 consecutive days in the green category on my health officer’s dashboard.
Grand Forks Health Officer, Dr. Joel Walz, has issued a Health Officer Order that will continue the requirement of masks or face coverings for all residents within Grand Forks County to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. This order will go into effect January 18, 2021 at 12:01 a.m. Remaining consistent with the Statewide mask order, the Grand Forks Health Officer’s order