McLean County among high risk COVID counties
BY JAMES C. FALCON
james@nordaknorth.com
McLean County was ranked as a high risk area for COVID-19. Data from the North Dakota Department of Health late last week showed that the number of confirmed cases in the state were nearly double of the number two months ago – and that the central North Dakota county was one of 10 counties to be deemed high risk. The community level – whether or not a county is at low, medium or high risk – is determined by a series of weekly metrics: the case rate per 100,000 population, new COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 population (in a seven day total) and the percentage of staffed inpatient beds in use by patients with confirmed COVID-19. For McLean County, it had a case rate of 253.97 per 100,000, with 17.7 new COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 people. The number of staffed inpatient beds in use by patients with confirmed COVID-19 cases is 3.7. Since the pandemic began two years ago, the number of cases in McLean County have fluctuated. With the exception of periods during the late summer, fall and winter of 2020 and earlier this year when the number of cases spiked, numbers were rather low. The number of new positive cases on a weekly basis has been climbing in McLean County since last month: on June 30, there were seven seven-day cases,
while there were four times as much – 28 – last Thursday.
