North Dakota
Five Years Later: A look back at the early days of the pandemic in North Dakota
FARGO — March 11, 2025 is the five-year anniversary of North Dakota’s first confirmed case of COVID-19. What we didn’t know then is that it was the first of hundreds of thousands of cases for the state, and eventually, more than 100 million in America.
The state’s first case of Coronavirus was reported five years ago in Ward County.
In WDAY News’s 6 p.m. broadcast on March 11, 2020, there were reported supply shortages across the region. Stores across Fargo were out of toilet paper, and panic shopping was underway in Grand Forks.
The landscape of shortages changed dramatically over the pandemic, contributing to the global supply chain crisis that began in earnest the following year.
That same day, the Fargo VA began its first day of Coronavirus screenings, and West Fargo Public Schools canceled all out of state travel in March.
A particularly dramatic announcement came just two days after North Dakota reported its first COVID case. The North Dakota High School Activities Association suspended the winter tournament schedule. At that time, it was one of the few high school tournaments going on in the country. Those tournaments were eventually canceled for the year.
Area colleges transitioned to online classes. Then-Gov. Doug Burgum eventually announced K-12 schools would close for five days beginning March 16, while officials determined next steps. Classes resumed online on April 1 in Fargo. They remained online for the rest of the school year.
On March 13, President Donald Trump declared a national public emergency. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Burgum followed suit the same day.
“We’re taking a pragmatic, proactive, positive step, and again acting out of facts not out of fear,” Burgum said at the time.
Within a week, both governors ordered the closure of bars, restaurants and other entertainment venues via executive order. At the time, many of these were described as temporary measures. But as we all know, dramatic changes to our daily lives continued for years.
According to the latest data from the North Dakota Health and Human Services Vaccine Dashboard, just 10.5% of all people aged six months and older have been vaccinated for the 2024-2025 respiratory season. A total of 27.7% are up to date on their seasonal flu vaccinations.
Grand Forks Public Health epidemiologist Shawn McBride says the pandemic led to a lot of self reflection for people working in public health.
“We certainly saw an erosion of trust in public health agencies and health care providers during the pandemic,” McBride said.
He says the way people receive information has changed over time, and public health organizations need to adapt to those changes.
When it comes to improving the state vaccination rate, McBride points to reducing obstacles people may encounter when getting vaccinated.
“People need to take time off of work, or kids need to get away from school,” McBride said. “Sometimes those are things that are barriers that just don’t get people to go get that immunization. We need to make it easy for people, provide plenty of opportunities, and also make sure that there’s not a cost barrier as well.”
McBride emphasized that vaccines are safe, and effective, citing CDC data from a preliminary analysis of COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness over the last respiratory season.
“it reduced the risk of hospitalizations by 45 to 46%,” McBride said. “In my mind, that’s a significant risk reduction. And we do all kinds of things every day to reduce our risk. We put a seat belt on, we make sure we’re driving the speed limit, or we’re asking kids to put on a bike helmet. It’s about reducing the overall risk to have severe outcomes from things when we encounter them.”
According to the CDC, there have been over 111 million cases of COVID-19 in the United States since 2020. Over 1.2 million Americans have died.
Greg Power, fisheries division chief with the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, shares information about the new 2026-2028 Fishing Guide and a few new regulations starting April 1, 2026.
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SIOUX FALLS — Ali Stephens had 17 points and 13 rebounds and 8th-seeded Omaha defeated 9th-seeded North Dakota 49-39 in the first round of the Summit League women’s tournament.
The Fighting Hawks had a tough time putting the ball in the hoop all night long, scoring just three points in the first quarter and having only marginally better luck from there.
UND (7-24) shot just 23.5 percent from the floor (12-for-51) and made 1-of-20 shots from outside the arc. Walker Demers and Mackenzie Hughes had 10 points each to lead the Hawks, with Demers adding eight rebounds.
Matt Zimmer/Sioux Falls Live
Regan Juenemann had 10 points and five rebounds for the Mavericks while Avril Smith had seven points and 16 rebounds and Sarai Estupinan eight points, five assists and three rebounds. Omaha (6-26) shot the ball slightly better than the Hawks, going 16-of-53 from the field (30 percent) and 8-of-23 (35 percent) on 3-pointers.
With the win, the Mavs earn a date with top-seed North Dakota State on Thursday at 2:30 p.m.
The Bison won both regular season matchups by more than 50 points.
Matt Zimmer/Sioux Falls Live
Oral Roberts 84, Kansas City 62 — Don’t look now but the team that started the conference season 0-10 and at one point lost 15 of 16 games might be the hottest in the Summit League.
Oral Roberts picked up their fourth straight victory on Wednesday night in the conference tournament opener, routing Kansas City at the Premier Center in the 8/9 “play-in” game.
Ty Harper had 22 points to lead the Golden Eagles (10-22), who took a 44-21 lead by halftime and never looked back. ORU shot 50 percent from the floor and made 13-of-27 3-pointers while the Kangaroos shot just 34 percent and made 6-of-24 from deep. Martins Kilups had 17 points for the Eagles and Connor Dow added 14.
Jayson Petty had 14 points to lead the Kagaroos, who finish the season 4-27. It was their final game under coach Marvin Menzies, whom the school announced earlier this season would not return next year.
With the win ORU advances to face top-seed North Dakota State on Thursday at 6 p.m.
The Golden Eagles lost to NDSU 86-58 in Tulsa on Jan. 24 but they took the Bison to overtime in Fargo on Jan. 3 in a 79-77 loss.
Matt Zimmer is a Sioux Falls native and longtime sports writer. He graduated from Washington High School where he played football, legion baseball and developed his lifelong love of the Minnesota Twins and Vikings. After graduating from St. Cloud State University, he returned to Sioux Falls, and began a long career in amateur baseball and sports reporting. Email Matt at mzimmer@siouxfallslive.com.
North Dakota
The North Dakota Attorney General issued an opinion to the ND State Auditor – North Dakota Attorney General
04 Mar The North Dakota Attorney General issued an opinion to the ND State Auditor
in Opinions
March 4, 2026
Media Contact: Suzie Weigel, 701.328.2210
BISMARCK, ND – It is the opinion that federal law does not prevent the state from auditing P&A and even though P&A possesses confidential records, N.D.C.C. § 54-10-22.1 and 42 C.F.R. § 51.45(c) authorize the state auditor and the employees of the auditor’s office, to review the records without detriment to P &A.
Also, whether Rule 1.6 of the North Dakota Rules of Professional Conduct for licensed attorneys prohibits P&A from disclosing to the State Auditor the contents of a client file for the purpose of conducting a non-financial performance audit under N.D.C.C. ch. 54-10 when the requested file includes information about individuals and businesses in the private sector who chose to contact P &A.
This issue was already addressed in a 1995 opinion of this office regarding P&A. The 1995 opinion highlighted that P&A has authority to contract with private attorneys to represent private individuals. 17 During that performance audit, auditors asked to see billings from the contracted attorneys. 18 P&A redacted the names of the individuals represented by the contract attorneys under the rules for attorney-client privilege or attorney-client confidentiality. 19 The names of individuals seeking services of P&A are protected under N.D.C.C. § 25-01.3. The opinion stated:
Thus, P&A’s records which indicate to whom its services were provided are available to the State Auditor for performance audit purposes. The State Auditor has
been given access by P&A to its records other than the attorney’s billings. Therefore, the State Auditor already has access to the names of the persons to whom P&A
provides services. State law requires that the State Auditor and his employees must keep such information confidential.
Here, P&A has not identified a specific record. Given that, I rely on the past opinions declaring that records made confidential by N.D.C.C. § 25-01.3-10 are available under N.D.C.C. § 54-10-22 to the State Auditor and the Auditor’s employees for audit purposes.
Link to opinion 2026-L-01
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