North Dakota will allow healthcare workers who test positive for Covid-19 — but are asymptomatic — to work in the Covid unit of a licensed healthcare facility, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum announced Monday. The move comes as North Dakota hospitals handle increasing numbers of Covid-19 patients.

“Our hospitals are under enormous pressure now,” Burgum said in an announcement. “We can see the future two, three weeks out, and we know that we have severe constraints.”

Despite some hospitals already hiring traveling nurses, suspending elective surgeries and implementing their surge plans, Burgum said that maintaining staffing levels continues to be a challenge amid heavy patient counts. He noted that Covid-19 patients account for 14% of current hospitalizations.

North Dakota is also hiring full- and part-time emergency medical services personnel to support testing efforts, including assisting with testing site management, data collection and specimen collection. The North Dakota Department of Health is hiring paramedics, emergency medical technicians and advanced EMTs for testing missions throughout the state. The aim is to free up nurses and allow them to support inpatient care.

In a separate report Monday, healthcare staffing firm American Traveler noted that many states have expedited nurse licensing processes with nurses able to get licenses in some states in less than a day. The Nurse Licensure Compact already allowed for nurses to practice in multiple states, although not every state takes part in the compact. Specialties currently in demand across the country include med/surg, ICU (critical care) and telemetry. American Traveler noted that this month the number of open travel nursing jobs is the highest that it has ever seen.