CHISAGO CITY, Minn. — Sixty-one-year-old Kim Lorr is described by her daughter as “selfless” and “wonderful.”
“She’s been bartending at Dunham’s in West St. Paul, as old as I am, she’s been there for 30 years,” says Samantha Schuler.
With the pandemic slowing down business for many in the service industry, Samantha Schuler says her mother was recently dealt another blow.
She was diagnosed with COVID-19.
“On Monday, my dad reached out to me and my sister and said, 'I’m kind of worried about your mom, she’s not able to move around, not eating as much,'" says Schuler.
After noticing more severe symptoms, she was taken to the hospital. “That evening she had to be transferred to the ICU,” says Schuler.
While Schuler says her mother is recovering, Minnesota Department of Health's Kris Ehresmann cites concerns about an uptick in cases attributed to a rise in new variants of the virus across Minnesota - including the UK variant B117.
“The accelerating trends are on par with what we saw just before the big surge in the fall. The difference now is that we are making daily progress with vaccines to help us fight a surge,” says Ehresmann.
Schuler, who works at a local hospital, says her mother is recovering in good spirits, but is still not out of the woods yet. “Especially now that our hospital has had an uptick in COVID-19 patients, just knowing it’s still out there, it just hits different when it hits home,” says Schuler.
While 25% of all Minnesotans have been vaccinated, according to MDH, health officials are urging the public not to let their guard down.
Family members started a GoFundMe to help Lorr. If you would like to help, visit the link here.