20th COVID-19 death confirmed in county

A person has died in Foster County from the SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19) during the reporting period covering January 8-14, 2022.

It is the first recorded case death in the county since November of 2020, and the 20th in total since the pandemic began. The North Dakota Department of Health no longer provides specific identifiers for case fatalities, including age, sex and location.

Data and graphs from the NDDoH’s Facebook page showed that for that timeframe, there were 53 new positive cases in Foster County. Additionally, 11,756 new positive individuals were confirmed from January 8-14, with 6,553 of those deemed not fully vaccinated.

Persons are considered to be fully vaccinated two weeks following their second Pfizer or Moderna dose, or first Johnson & Johnson dose.

Currently, there are 26 active cases in the county, and 840 cumulative.

The jump in cases can be directly attributed to the rise of the Omicron mutation in the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It is the fifth “variant of concern” named by the World Health Organization (WHO), following the Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta variants.

Since the first of the year, when active cases in North Dakota dwindled to 1,679, the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has raged throughout the state, showing an almost straight upward climb on the Department of Health’s dashboard to a high of 9,800 cases on January 14.

On January 15, the NDDoH reported that the Omicron variant has now become the predominant strain of the virus in the state, surpassing Delta.

First reported to the WHO on November 24 of last year in South Africa, Omicron multiplies in the body roughly 70 times faster than Delta, according to Harvard Medical School.

In research conducted among patients in southern California, infections among the new variant were found to be 91 percent less lethal and 51% less likely to result in hospitalization.

Also, early indications show that vaccination results in 30-40% greater protection against the mutation, and 70% against hospitalization. If a person is boosted, that protection increases to 75% and 88%.

Statewide vaccination numbers in North Dakota show 395,356 fully vaccinated persons, with a 8.0% breakthrough infection rate, 0.19% hospitalization and 0.0483% death rate (average age 81.)

Of those who have been boosted (170,382 according to January 19 numbers), infection rate drops to 2.16%, and 0.0317% for hospitalization. Just five boosted persons statewide, or 0.0029%, have died, with the average age of those cases 80.

Foster County’s up-to-date vaccination rate currently sits at 66 percent.

The Carrington School District has had a mini-outbreak of COVID-19, mirroring viral spread in schools throughout the state in the past weeks, and one daycare facility had to shut down recently for 10 days.

On January 13, the district reported 13 active cases among children, a number which since has gone down to two in the most recent data available.

Statewide active student cases reached an all-time high of 1,488 from January 14 numbers on the NDDoH K-12 dashboard, with the high number for staff and faculty at 185 from numbers two days prior.