ROCHESTER, Minnesota (KTTC) – We’re seeing it across the country: The average age of people infected with coronavirus is decreasing after the reopening of companies.
“This is not unique to Rochester,” Olmsted County Public Health Director Graham Briggs said in a briefing on Thursday afternoon.
Med City is seeing this increase and trend toward younger patients, with a recent outbreak of 58 confirmed cases stemming from the Rochester center.
“This is something whether you are in Miami, Seattle, Houston or downtown Rochester. These kinds of behaviors that we are seeing across the country pose a risk of continuous transmission, particularly for groups of young people,” said Briggs .
“We really saw a risk and a link in these cases due to the behavioral choices that were made regarding social distancing and the interior and the use or lack of a mask in the community,” he added.
From Friday to Monday, Olmsted County reported 79 new cases of COVID-19. Of those 79, eight people were linked to behavioral options, such as inconsistent use of social distancing, use of masks, and visits to center establishments. Before that, from June 15 to July 9, 50 cases were traced back to the city center, also linked to behavioral elections. From there, 12 more people became infected, adding up to 70 cases and exposure to an additional 227 people.
“What this gives us now gives us an opportunity to inform those 227 people about the risk, provide them with education, and finally stop the transmission here,” said Briggs.
Authorities urge residents to use the outbreak as a reminder that the virus has not yet been removed and to combat it with tools that we know work.
“So it is important, it is important for us to be a community and work on this, work together on this,” said Briggs.
The average age or the first set of 58 cases was 28.5. These are just preliminary numbers, OCH says contact trackers are still gathering information and researching to get a full picture of the center outbreak.
