You know Covid-19 is out of control when health officials are so overwhelmed, they can't notify close contacts who may be infected.
That's what's happening in North Dakota, one of 31 states suffering more new Covid-19 cases this past week compared to the previous week.
Contact tracing is crucial to finding possible carriers of coronavirus, so they can quarantine and break the chain of infection.
But a "sharp increase" in new cases has engulfed contact tracers, leading to delays and "a backlog of positive cases that have yet to be assigned to a case investigator," the North Dakota Department of Health said this week.
"Close contacts will no longer be contacted by public health officials; instead, positive individuals will be instructed to self-notify their close contacts and direct them to the NDDoH website, where landing pages will be created ... explaining the recommended and required actions for both positive patients and close contacts."
Nationwide, all Americans need to double down on safety measures now that the definition of "close contacts" has expanded.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just broadened "close contacts" to include anyone you may have had brief contact with, within 6 feet, during a combined 15 minutes over the course of a day. (Previously, the CDC defined close contacts as anyone you had close encounters with for at least 15 minutes straight.)
The US is now well into the dreaded fall surge, fueled by indoor socializing, outbreaks at schools and pandemic fatigue.
It's not just the soaring numbers of new cases that's concerning. It's also the rising numbers of deaths and hospitalizations -- which could reduce care for patients who don't even have Covid-19.
"Hospitals are starting to fill up," Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said Thursday.

It is impossible to imagine developed countries like the United States doing so badly in epidemic prevention and control!