[ad_1]
So where are we in the COVID-19 pandemic?
It’s a question that Minnesota’s health executives ask themselves regularly, but can’t answer as precisely as the public wants. This is still true as the state finds itself in a recent cycle of moderate daily counts, but with a stubbornly persistent level of hospitalizations.
New cases confirmed daily appear to have moderated in recent days after weeks of steady increases, but the flattening of the number of cases probably has more to do with a short-term drop in the volume of testing.
Despite recent relative stability in data, the number of confirmed active cases in Minnesota were near highs at the end of May earlier this week.
While the condition may be at or just below the current wave crest, experts say more waves are coming.
“I think it’s a model that sounds familiar,” Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm told reporters earlier this week.
“We have weeks of construction, we stabilize a bit, we go back down for a few weeks, and then we tend to go up,” she said. “It’s a pretty stable situation, albeit at a higher level of cases than what we saw last spring” because testing rates and community spread are higher now.
“We are in a place where things are stable, but the problem is that we are stable at a high rate of cases,” added Kris Ehresmann, the state’s director of infectious diseases. “It’s something that we keep watching.”
Here is the latest coronavirus statistics in Minnesota:
-
66,061 confirmed cases (359 new) via 1,273,397 tests (6,836 new)
-
1,721 deaths (nine new)
-
5,932 cases requiring hospitalization
-
304 people remain hospitalized; 154 in intensive care
-
59,568 patients no longer need isolation
Current hospitalizations remain well below the peak at the end of May, but have stabilized at a relatively high level – more than 300 daily cases on average in August.
College concerns grow as the fall semester approaches
Concerns persist about the growth of COVID-19 among Minnesota’s youth, including that those infected are inadvertently spreading the virus to grandparents and other more vulnerable people.
People in their 20s remain the age group with the most confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the pandemic – more than 15,000.
State public health officials are increasingly concerned about student participation in summer parties and other gatherings that could fuel the spread of COVID-19 and bring it to campuses this autumn.
Clusters of cases surfaced in late June around college bars, including in Mankato, Minneapolis and St. Cloud. Concerns about similar potential outbreaks are spreading again as the fall semester approaches.
“It’s a bad time to throw a party, take a group road trip, or otherwise lighten COVID-19 precautions,” Ehresmann told reporters on Friday, calling on students to “keep a low profile before they go. go”.
“The pandemic is still a big problem and will likely become a bigger problem this fall,” she said. “The world has changed and will not return to normal for at least the next few months.”
The Department of Health this week released additional advice to colleges on ways to reduce the risk of COVID-19.
Cases are growing in the south
Regionally, the Twin Cities and its suburbs were behind the number of newly reported cases, although there is a recovery now in southern Minnesota.
Cases in northern Minnesota have been on the rise for weeks, although they were down in the most recent report. Beltrami County, home to Bemidji, has seen a steady rise in recent weeks. The county reported 279 cases and one death on Tuesday.
Meat-packing operations had been hot spots for large outbreaks in southwest, midwest and central Minnesota at the start of the pandemic.
New cases have slowed considerably in recent weeks, although the problem has recently resurfaced in McLeod County (278 cases), where more than 20 workers at a Seneca Foods factory in Glencoe were recently identified during an outbreak. .
Developments across the state
University of M study: Minn. Among the States with the greatest racial disparities in COVID-19
A University of Minnesota study of COVID-19 data from 12 states found racial and ethnic disparities among people hospitalized with the coronavirus.
The two-month study looked at 49,000 hospitalizations and found that blacks were hospitalized at a higher rate than whites in all 12 states. The study found that Minnesota had some of the highest disparities in black hospitalizations. While about 7% of the state’s population is black, race made up a quarter of those hospitalized with the virus.
University of Minnesota professor Pinar Karaca-Mandic, a health economist at the Carlson School, said there are racial disparities in confirmed cases of COVID-19 as well.
“Not all infected people are hospitalized, do they? You have to show a more severe form of the disease to show up in the hospital, and we see that in our data, there must be essentially disparities on both sides. of this medal “, Karaca Said Mandic.
The study found similar hospitalization disparities in state data for Hispanic and Native American populations.
– Peter Cox | MPR News
School orientation map changes with new data
New data released by the Minnesota Department of Health is once again shifting the focus of some of the state’s school districts as they decide to teach children in person, online, or in some combination based on their needs. local COVID-19 conditions.
The new figures, for example, indicate that elementary school students in Ramsey and Dakota counties would no longer be recommended to attend school in person – if school started this week – due to the increase in cases of COVID-19.
Data released Thursday by the Department of Health indicates that 11 counties, including Ramsey and Dakota, are expected to drop in-person learning due to the increase in cases.
Recommendations for reopening the school based on the number of COVID-19 cases
Schools in 14 other counties, largely in the southern part of the state, would be recommended to switch to in-person learning. The state’s other 62 counties saw no change in their recommendations, which are based on COVID-19 cases per capita over a 14-day period.
Officials stressed that the map is meant to be a starting point for school districts as they assess their combination of in-person and online education in the COVID-19 era. The figures and accompanying recommendations are now updated weekly.
It is recommended that counties with very few cases per capita have in-person learning for all students – 48 counties as of Thursday.
In more cases, schools are urged to have high school students do a mix of in-person and distance learning while continuing their in-person education for elementary grades. 29 other counties fall into this category.
Eight counties are currently recommended for blended learning for all students. They include Hennepin, Ramsey, Dakota, Scott, Sherburne, and Blue Earth.
Two counties have so many cases that the state is currently recommending graduate students to study full-time remotely: Rock County in southwestern Minnesota and Red Lake County in northwestern Minnesota. .
Officials stressed that county-level data is a roadmap, not an order. Districts in these counties make decisions that may not exactly match the data.
Public Schools in St. Paul, the second largest school district in the state and the largest district in Ramsey County, have already announced the start of the school year with all distance learning students and will reconsider the decision end of September.
– David H. Montgomery | MPR News
Main titles
COVID-19 case confirmed at Sturgis bar: South Dakota health officials warned on Tuesday that a person who spent several hours at a Main Street bar in Sturgis during last week’s large motorcycle rally had tested positive for COVID-19 and might have spread it to others.
Policy slows the flow of US virus funds to local public health: Congress has allocated billions of dollars to alleviate the coronavirus crisis. A joint investigation by Kaiser Health News and the AP finds that many communities with large epidemics have spent little of that federal money in local public health departments on work such as testing and contact tracing. Others, like Minnesota, were slow to do so.
COVID-19 in Minnesota
The data in these charts is based on cumulative totals from the Minnesota Department of Health released at 11 a.m. daily. You can find more detailed statistics on COVID-19 at Department of Health website.
The coronavirus is spread through respiratory droplets, coughs and sneezes, in the same way that the flu can be spread.
[ad_2]
Source link