North Dakota scrambles to speed up virus test notifications

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Coronavirus cases are rising so fast in North Dakota that it’s taking officials up to three days to notify people after they test positive. And as a result, the state has also fallen behind on tracing close contacts who might have been exposed. Republican Gov. Doug Burgum and the North Dakota Department of Health announced late Tuesday they’re shifting 50 National Guard members who had been working in contract tracing to simply notifying people who test positive. And officials will no longer notify close contacts of people who tested positive; instead those individuals will be instructed to self-notify their close contacts. North Dakota, with its loose regulations, has the country’s worst per-capita spread rate.