North Dakota health officials: COVID-19 cases climb to 5

By iNFOTEL
March 18 2020 05:42 AM

CP1914708161 — Jennifer Pepple poses next to a shirt that reads "KEEP CALM AND SANITIZE ON" at the Shirt Shop located in the West Acres Mall in Fargo, N.D., on Wednesday, March 18, 2020. Pepple\'s store is one of a handful at the mall that hasn\'t shut down because of the coronavirus. Pepple said sales have been slow but planned to stay open "as long as I can." She said it\'s a family-owned business and her other workers, most of them in high school and college, have found jobs elsewhere. (AP Photo by David Kolpack)

BISMARCK, N.D. – North Dakota health officials have confirmed four additional cases of the new coronavirus, bring the state’s total to five infected people.

Two of the new cases are in Burleigh County, which is the second-most populous county and includes Bismarck.

The Burleigh County cases include a man in his 50s who had travelled domestically and a woman in her 20s who had travelled internationally. Health officials said both are recovering at home.

The Bismarck Tribune reports the other new cases are in residents of Cass County and Ward County. Neither is hospitalized. Ward County was the site of the initial North Dakota case, which was confirmed on March 11.

Gov. Doug Burgum said Tuesday “we do not have yet any confirmed proof of community spread” but that it can be assumed that it’s happening in North Dakota.

Community spread is people testing positive even though they hadn’t travelled to areas with a high concentration of the virus or had knowingly been in contact with someone who has it.

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