Gov. Greg Abbott has given Texans some economic hope with his recent easing of COVID-19 restrictions, but North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum had his state at the same reopening levels months ago, even though the two states still ended up with similar coronavirus statistics.
The North Dakota COVID-19 dashboard shows two peaks in COVID-19 deaths for the state, a small uptick in May and a second, much larger surge in September, months after the state reopened.
The Texas Dashboard does not look substantially different from North Dakota’s, except for the lack of a clear peak early in the pandemic. Texas still had a similar upsurge in deaths. but much earlier, in mid-August.
Yet, even though Texas saw its COVID-19 numbers peak much earlier than North Dakota, Burgum was already announcing in June that portions of the state would move to the final stage of reopening, according to coverage by KXNET. Under the fifth and final stage of Burgum’s plan, businesses were permitted to resume normal operations under standard precautions.
Texas has a population of more than 28 million, while 760,000 people live in North Dakota.
While Abbott is permitting restaurants, retail stores and office buildings to go from 50% capacity to 75%, he also excluded the Rio Grande Valley, Laredo and Victoria hospital regions, according to coverage by The Texas Tribune. The three regions are considered to be “in the danger zone” due to coronavirus cases comprising 15% or more of hospitalizations.
In May such North Dakota businesses already were reopening with fewer restrictions than Texans currently face, despite warnings from health officials of reopening causing a spike in cases, according to coverage by U.S. News.
Yet looking at the state’s dashboard, the number of coronavirus-linked deaths in the state actually fell from May to June.
Additionally, the North Dakota dashboard shows that even the recent peak in cases correlates strongly to the increased number of tests, with no peak in cases in May exceeding the peak the state experienced in the final week of April, even while testing increased dramatically in May.
In May, as North Dakota businesses started to reopen, Dr. Paul Carson, public health and infectious disease specialist at North Dakota State University and adviser to the governor’s COVID-19 team, said that although any increase in exposures came with an increased risk of new cases, the state had to also consider the health and economic effects of restrictions, according to U.S. News.
“I think we also have to realize that this extreme social isolation and closing businesses has come with a tremendous toll,” Carson was quoted as saying by U.S. News. “The end game is potentially months and even potentially years away.”
And while Texans wait for that endgame, the Texas Recovery Alliance recently cautioned that failing to speed reopening – especially of critical business sectors on the verge of collapse – could leave the state’s economy irreparably damaged, according to coverage by Texas Business Daily.
North Dakota has lead Texas in one other statistic, with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting Texas has 6.8% unemployment while North Dakota has fallen to 5%.
