ST PAUL, Minn. — Monday, March 30
4:30 p.m.
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who was invited to speak during the White House's coronavirus briefing Monday evening, announced that the Minnesota-based company was manufacturing cotton face masks to help protect people from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lindell said the company is currently producing 10,000 masks per day, with hopes of manufacturing 50,000 per day by Friday.
2 p.m.
Officials say 31 long-term care facilities have at least one case of coronavirus, up from 25 reported Sunday.
As of right now, there is no backlog in testing.
The Minnesota Department of Homeland Security says they've assessed five possible alternate care sites (temporary hospitals) for non-critical patients. The DHS says they've confirmed three of those sites, which can accommodate up to almost 500 beds. Officials say their immediate goal is to identify space for 2,750 beds — 1,000 in the metro and 1,750 in greater Minnesota.
According to the Department of Employment & Economic Development (DEED), they've received more unemployment applications over the past few weeks than they had in all of 2019. Officials say, as of Sunday night, they've received 239,263 unemployment applications since March 16.
To accommodate for the recent influx in applications, DEED is implementing a new system for people to apply for unemployment benefits, which is available at uimn.org.
People with their social security number ending in 0, 1, 2 are asked to apply Monday.
People with their social security number ending in 3, 4, 5 are asked to apply Tuesday.
People with their social security number ending in 6, 7, 8, 9 are asked to apply Wednesday.
Thursday and Friday will be available for anyone who may have missed their assigned days.
11 a.m.
State health officials say an additional death in Minnesota has been caused by complications of the coronavirus, bringing the total number of deaths to 10 since the onset of the pandemic.
The numbers of patients testing positive for COVID-19 is now at 576, up from the 503 cases reported during the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) status report Sunday. The 73-case increase is the largest daily jump since the state started documenting coronavirus cases.
The total approximate number of tests completed is 18,822, 7,948 of which were done at MDH labs.
Health officials say the total number of cases requiring hospitalization is 92, with 56 patients currently hospitalized with symptoms of the coronavirus. Twenty four of those patients are in the ICU.
Of the cases that tested positive for coronavirus, MDH says 260 of them no longer have to be isolated.
Sunday, March 29
2:00 p.m.
The Minnesota Department of Health held its daily call with reporters on Sunday afternoon to provide an update on COVID-19 in the state.
MDH Commissioner Jan Malcolm said there were four more deaths confirmed to bring the total to nine, and there was an increase of 62 cases to bring the total number to 503.
She said three of the four most recent deaths were in Hennepin County and all were in long-term care facilities.
Malcolm said the other death was in Martin County.
One patient had medical conditions and was in their 50s. The other patients who died were older in age, in their 80s and 90s, Malcolm said.
The MDH laboratory has processed over 7000 tests and private labs have done nearly 10,000 tests.
11:00 a.m.
The Minnesota Department of Health confirms that the COVID-19 death toll in Minnesota is now at nine and the number of confirmed cases is 503.
More than 17,000 people have been tested.
The MDH also reports that 39 people are hospitalized with the virus.
Health officials say 252 patients no longer need to be isolated.
Saturday, March 28
12:00 p.m.
Governor Tim Walz signed a bill Saturday that would allocate $330 million in COVID-19 aid.
That brings the state's total response to more than $550 million to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. The Minnesota Legislature passed the bill on Thursday.
The bill includes the following actions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that will help Minnesota:
- Establishes the COVID-19 Minnesota Fund to support further action
- Creates peacetime emergency child care grants
- Provides COVID-19 assistance for veterans
- Supports food shelves and food banks
- Expands resources for emergency services and homeless shelters
- Expands support available to small businesses
- Extends disaster assistance for farmers to include losses due to COVID-19
"The swift, bipartisan passage of the bill is One Minnesota in action," said Governor Walz. "Legislators put aside politics to fight the spread of COVID-19 and protect the health of Minnesotans. We're only in the early stages of Minnesota's battle against the COVID-19 pandemic - but this law will help ensure we have the right supports in place to prepare for what's to come."
11:00 a.m.
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) has confirmed another person has died due to COVID-19, which brings the total to five deaths in the state. MDH has identified 43 new coronavirus cases. The total number of cases is 441 as of March 28, which is up from 398 on March 27. MDH says 57 of those cases in total have required hospitalization, and 30 are still hospitalized. There are 220 patients who no longer need to be isolated. Approximately 7,290 of tests have been done by the MDH Public Health Lab and approximately 8,839 have been done by external laboratories. Hennepin County has the most cases at 152.