DOUG BURGUM

Demand for oil is surging, but rigs in North Dakota are lying idle as the U.S. tries to figure out the future of its energy supply.

Fifteen Republican governors have sent a letter to the U.S. Commerce Secretary, urging that the U.S. Census bureau release redistricting data as soon as possible.

I thank Governor Doug Burgum and the North Dakota legislature for their commitment to improve the lives of people with disabilities. I also thank the Executive Director of the North Dakota Department of Human Services, Christopher Jones. These services include help with deciding where to live, identifying and arranging for community-based services, and finding accessible housing. Finally, the agreement includes several provisions designed to ensure that North Dakota develops high-quality long-term care services that are available throughout the state. We look forward to working with North Dakota to create that change.

As of Saturday, there were only 18 free Intensive Care Unit beds and 178 non-ICU beds in hospitals throughout the state. Health care professionals and some community leaders had been pleading for months with Burgum to impose such restrictions. Rachel Heintz, who works as an emergency room nurse at a Bismarck hospital, said Saturday that she was relieved a mask order was issued. Playoff championship contests and performance events sponsored by the North Dakota High School Activities Association during the month of November may continue under the order. There were 2,373 new cases per 100,000 people in North Dakota over the past two weeks, which was the highest rate in the country, Johns Hopkins University researchers said.

It's not that people in Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa and elsewhere don't realize their states are leading the nation in new cases per capita. “They don’t think it’s real," she said. Like most people, Jay Stibbe, 52, of Fargo, North Dakota, said he and his family are respectful of COVID-19 protocols and wear masks where required. However, Stibbe said he doesn’t see enough “concrete information” about the virus to stop him from going about his normal life, even though North Dakota leads the nation in the number of virus cases per capita. ___Associated Press writers David Pitt in Des Moines, Iowa, and Dave Kolpack in Fargo, North Dakota, contributed to this story.

Health officials had asked workers in central Auckland to stay home on Friday while they investigated the case but say they can now return to work. — Surge of coronavirus cases appears to be slowing in Germany and France, but still straining hospitals. Alaska has had over 20,000 cases, including 477 new cases reported Thursday. She is scheduled Friday to address the situation and is expected to announce new public health restrictions aimed to curbing spread. That’s the impassioned message that dozens of parents and school administrators are sending to public health officials in Pennsylvania’s third-most populous county.

A North Dakota state legislative candidate died from COVID-19 in October — one month before Election Day. David Andahl, a Republican running for the state's House of Representatives won his race on Tuesday. DavidAndahl.comAndahl was running alongside fellow District 8 candidate David Nehring, who won 40.72% of the vote, while Andahl won 35.53%, according to state data. North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said Governor Doug Burgum has no authority to appoint a replacement. This comes after the governor announced Wednesday that he was appointing a coal company executive, Wade Boeshans of BNI Energy, to the seat, according to the AP.

The case number reported Tuesday is the lowest since India had 35,065 newly confirmed infections on July 17. Those counties have a daily average of at least 25 new virus cases per 100,000 residents. The seven-day average for daily COVID-19 deaths has also been climbing from 12 to 22 over the past 10 days. WHO’s emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan noted that 46% of all global COVID-19 cases last week were reported in Europe. ___ROME — Italy registered slightly more than 17,000 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Monday.

(AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Authorities in Sri Lanka have closed the country’s main fish market and widened the curfew in many parts of the island nation following a surge of coronavirus infections related to a new cluster centered on a garment factory. — Boston schools will switch to all-remote learning in response to rising coronavirus cases in the city. Kelly said Wednesday that two-thirds of the state’s confirmed cases now are outside the Wichita and Kansas City region. On Wednesday, the state reported its first patient to the field hospital on the state fairgrounds in West Allis outside of Milwaukee. ___ROME — The Italian region of Lazio, which includes Rome, is imposing an overnight curfew to combat surging coronavirus infections.

– Rural Jerauld County in South Dakota didn't see a single case of the coronavirus for more than two months stretching from June to August. As the brunt of the virus has blown into the Upper Midwest and northern Plains, the severity of outbreaks in rural communities has come into focus. In recent weeks, he's watched as one in roughly every 37 people in his county has tested positive for the virus. As cases surge, hospitals in rural communities are having trouble finding beds. “It's very, very challenging when your resources are poor — living in a small, rural county,” she said.

When it comes to the virus, Burgum has used his weekly press briefings to give emotional, sometimes teary pleas supporting face coverings, while emphasizing a “light touch” by government. A mask mandate “is not a magic bullet to make this virus go away,” he said. North Dakota is one of 16 states without a mask mandate. North Dakota hasn't elected a Democratic governor since 1988. More than five dozen North Dakota pediatricians recently signed a letter urging Burgum to mandate masks.

But that's not the message coming from a number of Republican governors in the region, who are working to find silver linings in the ominous health data as outbreaks surge in their states. North Dakota's governor has called his state's test positivity rate an achievement, even though its rate of new cases tops the nation. Kim Reynolds, however, has defended the state's decision to reopen bars and send students back into classrooms without masks required. Some governors are even pushing back against Trump's own advisers for giving blunter assessments of their states' situations. Hutchinson has continued resisting calls to roll back some of the state's reopening, saying he's relying more on personal responsibility.

The directive comes amid concerns about an uptick in coronavirus cases in certain Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods with large Orthodox Jewish populations. New York City’s current overall infection rate remains low, but official figures indicate the affected neighborhoods accounted for 20% of the city’s coronavirus cases in recent weeks. ___BOSTON — An outbreak of coronavirus infections at a major Boston hospital has grown to 19 confirmed cases. ___DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa has reported a jump of 1,086 new coronavirus cases, the second consecutive day of new cases exceeding 1,000. There are currently nearly 985,000 worldwide coronavirus deaths.

The argument over masks raged this week in Brookings, South Dakota, as the city council considered requiring face coverings in businesses. I worry about that.”Over 1,000 students at the states' four largest universities (the University of North Dakota, North Dakota State University, South Dakota State University and University of South Dakota) left campus to quarantine after being exposed to the virus, according to data released by the schools. North Dakota Gov. North Dakota's average rate of test positivity has been nearly 22% over the last seven days, according to the the COVID Tracking Project; South Dakota's has been 17%. "They are worried about being overwhelmed.”___Kolpack reported from Fargo, North Dakota.

FILE PHOTO: Governor Doug Burgum (R-ND) speaks to delegates at the Republican State Convention in Grand Forks, North Dakota, U.S. April 7, 2018. Picture taken April 7, 2018. REUTERS/Dan KoeckNEW YORK (Reuters) - North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum issued guidelines for reopening the state as soon as May 1 in a statement issued late Wednesday, according to a statement from his office. The states commerce department will work with business associations to develop new safety procedures for a gradual, safe reopening, according to a statement issued by his office. Safety measures could include daily disinfection, mandatory health protocols, and limits on the number of customers who can enter a business.

FARGO, N.D. - North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum signed an executive order declaring a statewide flood emergency as he and other officials held meetings in communities affected by high water. Burgum said North Dakota was experiencing conditions "we haven't seen before across the whole state." And Goehring had these words for farmers worried about what the future might bring:"Take a deep breath, and hold on," Goehring said. "There's an economic hardship that we're facing here relative to this fall's harvest that is likely unprecedented," Burgum said. As of Monday morning, eight counties and four cities in North Dakota had issued flood emergency declarations, with more expected.