ND health officials talk COVID treatments

Although health officials admit there is a better understanding of how to treat COVID-19 the best defense remains vaccination.

North Dakota has seen an uptick in positive cases in recent weeks – with the Delta variant now the dominate strain.

During a Town Hall meeting today (Tuesday) Dr. Joshua Ranum of the West Regional Medical Center says monoclonal antibody treatment is showing some promise.  “Vaccine is still highly recommended as the best thing a person can do to protect themselves.  The monoclonal treatment is great but it’s like trying to figure out what fire department to call rather than preventing fires in the first place.”

Officials also discouraged the use of the anti-parasitic medicine ivermectin as a COVID treatment.

More young people are also testing positive.   Last week the under 19 crowd accounted for upwards of 36% of all new cases.

North Dakota currently has 2,590 active cases of COVID-19.