Wednesday, April 22
7:30 p.m.
Vice President Mike Pence is expected to visit Minnesota on Tuesday, April 28.
Pence will tour the Mayo Clinic in Rochester and speak with the medical staff and personnel.
Later that night, the vice president will return to Washington, D.C.
According to a news release, additional details about Pence's trip will be "forthcoming."
5:15 p.m.
Comfrey Farm Prime Pork has announced it is "proactively suspending operations temporarily" at its Windom, Minnesota pork processing plant, due to the spread of COVID-19 cases in the area, including at the plant.
In post on its Facebook page, Comfrey Farm Prime Pork said the closure time will allow the company to put additional preventative measures in place at the plant to protect employees and the surrounding community.
"When we discovered our first positive case of COVID-19 at the plant, we immediately activated Comfrey Farm Prime Pork's COVID-19 response plan," said CFO Tom Seigfreid in a statement. "We developed this comprehensive response plan in March; today's closure is part of that plan to make sure we are doing everything we can to prioritize the health and safety of our employees and our communities. Every employee will continue to receive pay, and we expect most employees to return to work this Friday, April 24th."
According to the statement, the Windom plant was already conducting health screenings, and will now add extra questions and equipment to daily health checks. The company will also increase physical distancing and switch to two cut shifts.
A two-day deep-clean sanitizing effort will also be conducted.
The company said product availability may be temporarily affected by the suspension, including some production temporarily suspended for certain products until the week of May 4.
According to the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), as of April 22, there have been six lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in Cottonwood County, where the plant is located.
2 p.m.
Governor Tim Walz announced a partnership with the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota that will expand testing capacity to 20,000 molecular and 15,000 serology tests per day.
Walz said the plan being put in place will allow for more testing than any other state in the country, and potentially any country in the world.
The number of tests available will allow the state to test all symptomatic people in the state, Walz said.
Testing priority will go to molecular testing for all symptomatic patients, Minnesota Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said.
Malcolm said the testing methods will be strategic and will include intensive testing of vulnerable populations, including Minnesotans living in congregate settings and those experiencing homelessness; staff that serve vulnerable populations and health care workers; communities of color and American Indian populations; and workforce for critical infrastructure.
Malcolm said a health alert message will be sent out Wednesday statewide to test every symptomatic Minnesotan as soon as possible.
MDH, the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota are set to create a central lab to facilitate expanded testing and a virtual command center in coordination with the health systems to monitor daily testing and manage rapid responses to outbreaks.
1 p.m.
Governor Tim Walz changed plans Wednesday, opting to join a press briefing he was going to sit out in order to make an announcement on developments with COVID-19 testing in Minnesota.
While the governor's staff did not release details of the announcement itself, they did confirm that Mr. Walz will be joined at the briefing by officials from the Mayo Clinic, the University of Minnesota (U of M) and other Minnesota health system leaders.
Researchers at the U of M recently asked the legislature for $20 million in funding so they could conduct around 20,000 coronavirus tests around the state each day, 10,000 for virus detection and 10,000 antibody tests.
KARE 11 will carry the briefing live on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and here on kare11.com.
11 a.m.
The Minnesota of Department of Health (MDH) is reporting 19 new deaths associated with COVID-19 Wednesday, making it the single deadliest day in the state since the start of the pandemic.
That brings the total number of fatalities since late January to 179, up from the 160 reported on Tuesday. The number of cases testing positive has increased to 2,721, up 154 from a day earlier. Total hospitalizations since the beginning of the pandemic are now up to 660, with 240 patients currently in hospitals across Minnesota. One hundred-seven of those cases are being treated in the ICU.
Hennepin County has recorded the most cases with 1,073, followed by Ramsey with 219 and Olmsted with 204. Fifty-one percent of those testing positive are female. Those between the ages of 45 and 64
Health officials say the number of people who have recovered from the coronavirus continues to increase as well. As of Wednesday, 1,317 people who at one time tested positive for the virus no longer require isolation.
The number of confirmed cases in Nobles County in southwestern Minnesota, which includes the city of Worthington, rose to 126. That's an increase of 25 cases from Tuesday, and the county has now confirmed its first death. Authorities are tracking a cluster of cases associated with the JBS USA pork plant, which has been shut down indefinitely.
Tuesday, April 21
7:15 p.m.
Hormel Foods and Jennie-O confirms there have been positive cases of COVID-19 diagnosed among employees at its Jennie-O plant in Willmar.
"As team members are impacted by COVID-19, we are doing what’s right and that includes quarantining and ensuring all close contacts are identified and also quarantined, as well as transparent communication with our team members, including translating communications into multiple languages. All impacted team members continue to receive 100 percent of pay and benefits while they are away from work," Hormel and Jennie-O said in a statement. "We will also be transparent and report any possible closures of facilities due to deep cleaning or staffing issues that may be caused by COVID-19. We are not reporting individual cases as we have found that the situations in our communities are changing daily."
Jennie-O said production facilities are continuing to operate "with minimal disruption to our supply chain."
"The company’s team of inspired people is working to ensure a consistent and steady food supply during this crisis," the statement read.
Jennie-O did not reveal the exactt number of cases at the Willmar plant. The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) listed 3 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Kandiyohi County as of April 21.
The reports of coronavirus cases involving Jennie-O workers follows reports of several confirmed COVID-19 cases at a JBS pork processing plant in Worthington, Minn., which closed operations this week.
5 p.m.
The Minneapolis Fire Department has confirmed one of its firefighters recently tested positive for COVID-19.
According to a news release from MFD, the Minnesota Department of Health reviewed the timeline of the firefighter's contacts, and determined there was no need for additional action.
Minneapolis Fire officials said even before this diagnosis, the department was already taking steps to reduce exposure to firefighters and the public, including mandating use of personal protective equipment, social distancing at fire stations, and cleaning fire stations twice a day or more.
2 p.m.
Minnesota Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm says there have been 17 new deaths. Fourteen were residents of long term care facilities.
MDH Infectious Disease Director Kris Ehresmann said they have been having daily calls with long term care facilities to keep them updated with new guidance. The most recent call was attended by 1,500 facilities.
According to MDH officials, 113 of the 160 total deaths are associated with long term care.
When MDH is notified of a case in a long term care facility, officials conduct contact tracing and make recommendations for isolation, quarantine and/or work exclusion.
Everyone is recommended to wear masks, not just people in long term care facilities, Ehresmann said.
There is a team dedicated to helping long term care facilities, Michelle Larson MDH Director of Health Regulation said.
Michelle Larson, MDH Director of Health Regulation, said there is a team dedicated to helping long term care facilities.Larson said she is working on behalf of long term care facilities from within the State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC).
A phone line is being created specifically for long term care facilities that will be available at 24/7.
Malcolm said increasing testing capacity is a challenge they are working on.
The virus spread inside long term care settings is very likely coming in from the community through staff and healthcare workers Ehresmann said. The ability of virus to spread before someone has symptoms makes stopping it from getting into the facility very difficult, she added.
