Updated 11:30 p.m.
Minnesota’s COVID-19 data showed moderate daily death tolls Tuesday, but current hospitalizations now stand at over 300 people.
The state continued to ride what officials have described as the crack of the last wave of the disease.
The number of newly confirmed cases was relatively small at 359, but was probably also down due to test volume.
The current hospitalizations (304) increased by 18, while those in need of intensive care (154) increased by one. Hospitalizations – a key metric as officials try to control the spread of the disease – have averaged over 300 cases since the end of July.
That is well below a height of one end of May, but remains idiosyncratic.
Despite the recent relative stability in the data, Minnesota’s count of active, confirmed cases stays close to its full may, and public health leaders believe that while the state may be on the brink of the current wave, more waves are coming.
“We are in a place where things are stable, but the concern is that we are stable in a high rate of cases,” Kris Ehresmann, director of the state of infectious disease, told reporters Monday.
Of the 66,061 total confirmed cases of the disease since the pandemic began, about 90 percent have recovered to the point that they no longer need to be isolated.
With nine additional deaths reported Tuesday, Minnesota confirmed confirmed death toll in the pandemic at 1,721. About 75 percent of the deceased lived in long-term care as assistant housing facilities.
Concerns of college grow as autumn semester approaches
Concerns continue about the growth of COVID-19 among younger Minnesotans, including that those infected will spread the virus through insecurity to grandparents and other vulnerable people.
People in their 20s remain the age group with the highest number of COVID-19 confirmed cases in the pandemic – more than 15,000.
Public health leaders are increasingly concerned about college students attending end-of-summer parties and other gatherings that could fuel the spread of COVID-19 and bring it to campuses this fall.
Clusters of cases continued around late June around college bars, including in Mankato, Minneapolis and St. Louis. Cloud. Concerns about similar potential outbreaks flare up again as the fall semester approaches.
“This is a bad time to throw a party, go on a group trip, or otherwise focus on COVID-19 precautionary measures,” Ehresmann told reporters Friday, when she called on students to “lie down before going.”
“The pandemic is still a big problem and will probably become a bigger problem this fall,” she said. “The world has changed and will not return to normal for the next few months at least.”
On Monday, she said the Department of Health will provide additional guidance to colleges on ways to reduce COVID-19 risk.
Cases are growing in the south
On a regular basis, the Twin Cities and their suburbs have driven the counting of newly reported cases, although there is now an upswing in southern Minnesota.
Cases in Northern Minnesota are weeks on the rise, though they tapered off in the latest report. Beltrami County, home of Bemidji, has seen a steady climb in recent weeks. The province reported 279 cases and one death as of Tuesday.
Meatpacking operations were formerly hotspots for major outbreaks in southwest, west-central and central Minnesota earlier in the pandemic.
New cases have slowed sharply in recent weeks, though the problem has recently recurred in McLeod County (278 cases), where more than 20 employees at a Seneca Foods plant in Glencoe were recently identified in an outbreak.
Developments from around the state
U of M-study: Minn. Between states with largest racial differences in COVID-19
A University of Minnesota study of COVID-19 data from 12 states found racial and ethnic differences among those hospitalized for the coronavirus.
The two-month study looked at 49,000 hospitalizations and found that Black people were hospitalized at a higher rate than white people in all 12 states. The study found that Minnesota had some of the highest differences in hospitalizations of Black people. While about 7 percent of the state’s population is Black, the race represented a quarter of those hospitalized for the virus.
Professor Pinar Karaca-Mandic, University of Minnesota, a health economist at Carlson School, said there are also racial differences in confirmed cases of COVID-19.
“Not everyone infected is brought to the hospital, right? You have to show a more severe form of the disease to appear in the hospital, and we see that in our data there must be significant differences on both sides of this coin,” Karaca – Mandic said.
The study found similar differences in hospitalization in state data for Hispanic and Native American populations.
– Peter Cox | MPR News
Mayo Clinic: Plasma efforts show promise
Researchers with a national program led by Mayo Clinic say they have made two key findings in using plasma to treat people with COVID-19.
The so-called convalescent plasma comes from people who have recovered from the disease. The program included more than 35,000 hospital patients.
Researchers said that starting plasma transfusions earlier – within three days after a diagnosis of COVID-19 – was associated with lower mortality. That rate also fell for patients who received plasma with higher antibody levels.
Mayo officials have noted that it was not a clinical trial and has not yet been peer reviewed, but they say the findings could help inform future trials for COVID-19 treatments.
– MPR News Staff
School guidance card replaced with new data
Fresh data released by the Minnesota Department of Health again changes the guidance for some of the state’s school districts, as they decide if children learn in person, online or in any combination, based on their local COVID-19- circumstances.
The new figures, for example, no longer advise elementary school students in Ramsey and Dakota counties to go to school in person – when school started this week – due to increasing COVID-19 cases.
Data released Thursday by the Department of Health indicates that 11 counties, including Ramsey and Dakota, will have to withdraw from learning from individuals because of high-profile cases.
Recommendations for reopening school based on COVID-19 case counts
Schools in another 14 counties, for the most part in the southern part of the state, would be recommended to shift to personal learning. The other 62 counties of the state saw no change in their recommendations, which are based on COVID-19 cases per capita over a 14-day period.
Officials have stressed that the card is intended as a starting point for school districts, as they weigh their mix of personal and online instruction in the COVID-19 era. The figures, and the accompanying recommendations, are now updated weekly.
Counties with very few cases per head are advised to teach personally to all students – 48 counties as of Thursday.
With more cases, schools are encouraged to provide secondary students with a mix of personal and distance education, while still doing in-school for primary schools. Another 29 counties fall into that category.
Eight counties are currently recommended for hybrid learning for all students. They include Hennepin, Ramsey, Dakota, Scott, Sherburne and Blue Earth.
Two counties have so many cases that the state currently recommends upper-class students there study full-time at a distance: Rock County in southwest Minnesota, and Red Lake County in northwest Minnesota.
Officials have stressed that the data at the provincial level is a roadmap, not an order. Districts within those counties make decisions that may not exactly match the data.
St. Paul Public Schools, the state’s second largest school district and the largest district in Ramsey County, has already announced that the school year will begin with all students in distance education and will review the decision by the end of September.
– David H. Montgomery | MPR News
Top headers
Politics slows the flow of U.S. virus funds to local public health: Congress has allocated trillions of dollars to cover up the coronavirus crisis. A joint Kaiser Health News and AP survey finds that many communities with major outbreaks have spent a bit of that federal money on local public health departments for work such as testing and tracking contacts. Others, like Minnesota, were reluctant to do so.
COVID-19 in Minnesota
Data in these graphs are based on cumulative total Minnesota Department of Health cumulative totals released at 11 a.m. daily. You can find more detailed statistics about COVID-19 on the Health Department website.
The coronavirus is transmitted through respiratory drops, coughs and niches, similar to the way the flu can spread.
