North Dakota reports 58 new COVID-19 cases, 2 deaths

The deceased were a man in his 70s from Grand Forks County and a woman in her 50s from Burleigh County. Both individuals, like most of those who have died in North Dakota, had underlying health conditions.

The department also reported 58 new COVID-19 cases in the state, moving the total number of infections to 6,660. Bismarck's Burleigh County, which has emerged as the new hot-spot for the virus in North Dakota, added 17 new cases. Jamestown's Stutsman County reported six new cases.

Fargo's Cass County, McIntosh County and Dickinson's Stark County each added five new cases. Mandan's Morton County reported four new cases. Barnes, Benson, Grand Forks, Logan, McLean, Mountrail, Oliver, Ramsey, Richland, Ward and Williams counties each reported three or fewer new cases.

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The state reported results from 3,965 tests Sunday. Over the past week, the Department of Health processed an average of 4,513 tests per day. Six new virus patients were hospitalized, while 50 are currently hospitalized.

The department listed COVID-19 as the primary cause for 91 of the state's deaths. A dozen deaths list the virus as a secondary cause or are pending death records. The two deaths announced Sunday did not indicate whether COVID-19 was a primary or secondary cause.

The state also separately lists four deaths of individuals who are presumed to have been COVID-19 positive, though those individuals never tested positive for the illness.

The recent outbreak in Burleigh County and Morton County prompted the state to form the Bismarck-Morton COVID-19 Task Force, which is seeking to drive down the seven-day rolling average of positives in the capital area.

Statewide, active cases totaled 1,078 according to figures released Sunday. Burleigh County leads the state in active cases with 281, according to data from Saturday, Aug. 1. While active cases in the county climbed 42% from Sunday, July 19 to Sunday, July 26, the growth in active cases slowed over the past week, rising 13%.

Cass County, the state's most populous area, saw active cases fall 12% over the past week, marking two consecutive weeks active cases have fallen in the county. Statewide, active cases have ranged between 1,025 and 1,103 over the past eight days.

Over the past seven days, the department has recorded an average of 112 new cases per day.

North Dakota continues to rank highly in per-capita testing across the country, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. The state ranks ninth in the category, testing ahead of regional counterparts Minnesota, Montana and South Dakota and current hot-spot states Arizona and Florida.

North Dakota has recorded the sixth-fewest COVID-19 deaths and eighth-fewest cases of the virus in the nation, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nationwide, CDC has reported 4,542,579 cases of COVID-19 and 152,870 deaths from the virus.

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