Governor Doug Burgum announced yesterday during his press conference, that the North Dakota mask mandate will be extended until January 18th.  He said, January 18th will be a big date as the state hopes to have vaccinated many of their healthcare workers by that time, and some of our people in long term facilities.

The North Dakota mask mandate does come with a penalty for non-compliance.  It's a class B misdemeanor, depending how many times you've been ticketed, you could receive up to a $1,000 dollar fine.  However, I have not heard of anyone in Bismarck Mandan being charged.  My observations, I would say 90% of people are following the mask mandate, but there are times at establishments such as convenient stores, that it seems like people have no clue there is such a mandate.

Other notes from Governor Burgum's press conference, high school sports will be allowed to start games beginning this Monday, December 14th.  There's a full slate of games for hockey and basketball for area teams, which is great to see.  This is a BIG turn of events, as it was about one month ago, Governor Burgum shut down the winter sports seasons.  After a big uproar, he reversed his decision.  Burgum also extended the bar and restaurant capacity to 50 percent, and limited dine in hours through January 8th.

COVID-19 cases in North Dakota continue to trend downwards, however Governor Burgum warned during the press conference, that we traditionally have an uptick in health care demand for non-COVID-19 treatments.

Governor Burgum said he hopes people will wear their masks and the momentum of the last couple of weeks will continue.


 

 

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