ST PAUL, Minn. — Tuesday, Oct. 27
- Tuesday's 2,178 reported cases third-highest since pandemic began
- Gov. Tim Walz warns Minnesota is at a 'critical' point
- Anoka-Hennepin Schools move to full distance learning, cancel athletics
- 42% increase in Minnesotans getting flu shots at this point in season
- While vaccines are not yet available, MDH is working on a distribution plan
- Officials worry 'COVID fatigue' playing into spike in cases
Minnesota continues to trend in the wrong direction in the battle against COVID-19, with state health officials reporting 2,178 new cases of the virus Tuesday, including 11 Antigen tests. That's 600 more than on Monday, and the third highest total reported since the pandemic began.
The Minnesota Department of Health says the state has now recorded 137,536 total cases of the coronavirus, based on 2,724,320 PCR and Antigen tests processed in private and state labs.
An additional 15 people have died from COVID-19, bringing Minnesota fatalities to 2,368. Of those deaths 1,653, or 70% of them, have occurred in assisted living or long-term care settings.
The total number of people treated for coronavirus in Minnesota hospitals is now up to 9,729, with 2,589 of them requiring care in the ICU. MDH says 122,100 people who at one time tested positive for the virus have recovered to the point they no longer require isolation.
Those between the ages of 20 and 24 make up the largest group of Minnesota's COVID cases with 17,147 and a single death, followed by people 25 to 29 with 13,364 cases and three deaths.
The largest grouping of fatalities involves people from 85 to 89, with 413 recorded deaths in just 1,858 cases. That means 22% of those in that demographic who are diagnosed with coronavirus die from it.
Hennepin County has the most COVID activity in the state with 34,657 cases and 944 deaths, followed by Ramsey County with 14,342 cases and 362 fatalities. Dakota County has recorded 10,027 cases and 138 deaths.
Cook County in northeastern Minnesota has the least COVID activity with 17 recorded cases since the pandemic began, followed by Kittson County with 49 cases.
Monday, Oct. 26
2 p.m.
Governor Tim Walz joined health officials Monday for a regular briefing call to update the public on the state of COVID-19 spread and response in Minnesota.
Walz told Minnesotans that the state is at a "critical" point in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The governor said that expanding testing capacity in Minnesota, specifically with saliva testing centers opening throughout the state, is crucial.
"Testing is the key to stopping the chain of virus spread," Walz said.
Walz and health officials met with White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx over the weekend in Rochester.
"She couldn't have been clearer," Walz said. "The upper Midwest is at a critical juncture. Her assessment was that the state of Minnesota and potentially the state of Illionis have the potential to stop what is happening in other states."
Birx said widespread testing, especially among asymptomatic people, is key.
"Our ability to hold the positivity rate gives us a fighting chance here," Walz said. "The virus ... is most dangerous when it's infecting people who don't know they have it."
Walz said the virus is spreading in rural Minnesota as quickly as anywhere else. The infection rates in the upper Midwest are the highest infection rates on the planet right now, the governor said.
He also pointed out that young people who feel they are at a lower risk of becoming severely ill are playing a major part in spreading the virus around Minnesota.
"Whether you have been blessed enough to not have a friend, a neighbor, a family member, an acquaintance infected, it is out there," Walz said.
The governor finished his message with three pleas for Minnesotans:
- Avoid large gatherings and think about even limiting gatherings with family.
- Wear a mask and social distance.
- Test, test, test.
"The next six to 12 weeks are going to be critical," the governor said.
Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) Commissioner Jan Malcolm echoed Walz's message of urgency.
"Time is really of the essence to double down on those prevention strategies," Malcolm said.
Malcolm said Minnesota has seen a 70% increase in COVID patients requiring hospitalization just in the last month.
She also pointed out that the case growth in Minnesota was 22% from mid-August to mid-September. The growth from mid-September to mid-October was four times higher.
Case growth in the beginning of summer was mostly among younger people, Malcolm said, but now more cases are coming in working-age adults and older.
"Our case growth now is driven by community transmission," Malcolm said.
This makes controlling outbreaks "extremely difficult," Malcolm said.
There have been more than 70 wedding-related outbreaks since June, according to MDH, leading to more than 650 cases. Each one of those people by now could have had a ripple effect of infecting more than 70 other people, Malcolm estimated.
"Heading into the fall when we know there are more respiratory illnesses, more pressures on hospital capacity," Malcolm said, the increasing hospital admissions are concerning.
Malcolm added that there is a concern for spread in school environments, even as officials work hard to prevent outbreaks. Twenty-seven percent of K-12 schools in Minnesota have had at least one case since school began, and currently there are 33 Minnesota schools with five or more cases. Over half of all higher education institutions in Minnesota have had at least one case of COVID-19 since Aug. 1.
In the last week MDH has confirmed two outbreaks in high school sports, and eight suspected outbreaks among both higher education and K-12 sports.
MDH Infectious Disease Director Kris Ehresmann warned that it's not just large gatherings that are causing spread - it's smaller ones.
"The risks are still there, even if you get together with a smaller group of people that you know," Ehresmann said. "Things that may have been relatively safe a month or two ago may no longer be safe."
She said that the rate of community spread right now makes everything higher risk.
"Outside means less risk, but it doesn't mean no risk," Ehresmann said. "Masks mean less risk, but not no risk."
MDH estimates that a single case infects three other people, and within four generations that has an average impact of 71 infections, Ehresmann said.
"We have the capacity to change this trajectory," Walz said. "We can write a different story on what COVID does in Minnesota, but it's going to take all of us."
When asked whether Minnesota will "dial back" and put renewed restrictions on any social or business settings, Walz did not rule any such measures out, but said there is no active plan to do so.
"We certainly always have to be watching," he said. "If this turns bad quickly and we're seeing things that we could do to slow the spread, we will implement those."
However, the governor maintained that a blanket approach would not be needed. He pointed out, for instance, that there has not been much spread in retail settings.
"It's just a matter of using the tools that we have in place, and actually getting adherence up," Walz said.
Those tools, he said, are simple.
"Don't gather in large gatherings, don't go to super spreader events, don't go into businesses without masks on," he said. "We have room to grow here. I'm pretty disappointed ... it appears like there's pretty good reason to believe that we're wearing masks less than the national average."
Walz said his administration has always believed that a shelter-in-place order was not a long-term solution to COVID-19. He said that he believes a national mask mandate would be more effective than a shelter-in-place order, were the federal government to implement one. But Minnesota's long-term strategy has been more about public compliance.
"Manage this with personal behaviors," he said. "Manage it with some limitations on indoor dining, large group gatherings."
Ehresmann said that MDH would like to be able to say "We gave it everything we had with the tools that we had" before they move onto more "painful" options.
"Certainly we are in a very concerning place," Ehresmann said. "But we have tools in our toolbox that we have not fully utilized."
11 a.m.
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) announced Monday that the number of positive coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in Minnesota has increased by 1,578, bringing the cumulative total to 135,372.
Four more people have died, bringing the death total to 2,353.
MDH also said Monday that the total number of tests taken is at 2,710,177.
MDH's COVID-19 case definition was recently updated to include antigen testing. Previously, cases were only reported through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing. Positive PCR test results are considered confirmed cases, while positive antigen test results are considered probable cases.
MDH will combine these totals for its death, hospitalization and demographic reporting. The department will report the numbers separately for some other areas, like newly reported cases and total cases by county of residence.
To date, 9,588 Minnesotans have been hospitalized with the coronavirus since the pandemic started, with 2,558 of them needing care in the ICU.
MDH reports that 120,421 people once diagnosed with the virus have recovered enough that they no longer need isolation.
Of those who have tested positive, people between the ages of 20-24 account for the most cases with 16,958 cases and one death, and ages 25-29 follow with
13,156 cases and three deaths. Those between 85 and 89 years old account for the highest number of fatalities in one age group with 411, out of 1,827 confirmed cases.
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The state of Minnesota has set up a data portal online at mn.gov/covid19.
