Latest news on COVID-19 in MN: 15 deaths, 5,800 new cases

Updated 12:05

Minnesota’s COVID-19 report on Monday offered a mixed set of statistics that make the post-Thanksgiving landscape difficult to map.

The number of newly confirmed or probable cases – 5,801 – was down from the previous week, as was testing.

The state’s health department reported 15 deaths, the lowest daily number recorded in the past two weeks. Yet that brought the toll to 1,136 reported deaths in November – nearly a third of all COVID-19-related deaths in the pandemic.

New hospital admissions have trended downward in the past two days after peaking on Saturday, although hospitalizations are still high. More than 1,800 people are in hospitals in Minnesota due to COVID-19 and nearly 400 are in need of intensive care. The numbers have jumped since November 1.

Governor Tim Walz and state public health officials are expected to brief reporters at 2 p.m.

The latest figures follow a long holiday weekend when Minnesota health officials reported more than 23,000 new cases of COVID-19 and 203 deaths.

Authorities remain concerned about another possible hospital jump in a few weeks after Thanksgiving holiday gatherings where symptom-free family members and friends may have unknowingly spread the virus.

Of the 318,763 confirmed or probable cases identified to date, about 86% have recovered to the point that they no longer need to be isolated.

The deaths reported on Monday brought Minnesota’s toll to 3,593. Of those who died, about 67% were living in long-term care facilities or assisted living facilities; most had underlying health problems.

The number of cases distributed among age groups

New cases have increased over the past month in all age groups.

People in their 20s are still the age group with the most confirmed cases in the state – more than 62,000 since the start of the pandemic, including more than 33,600 among people aged 20 to 24.

The number of school-aged children confirmed with the disease has also increased, with nearly 25,000 total cases among children aged 15 to 19 since the start of the pandemic.

The numbers help explain why experts remain particularly concerned about adolescents and young adults as spreaders of the virus.

Although less likely to feel the worst effects of the disease and end up in hospital, experts fear that young people and young adults could pass it on to grandparents and other vulnerable populations.

This is of particular concern because people can have the coronavirus and spread COVID-19 when they don’t have symptoms.

Walz recently said the state has data showing infection rates are increasing around bar and restaurant activity after 9 p.m. among young adults, noting that people who have the virus but have not no symptoms can spread it unintentionally.

Virus invades rural Minnesota

Regionally, central and northern Minnesota has been responsible for much of the recent increase in new cases, while Hennepin and Ramsey counties have one of the slowest growths in cases of State.

The fastest growing epidemics remain largely along the state’s western border with the Dakotas, where the virus is spreading unchecked. But new cases are mushrooming all over Minnesota.

Collectively, rural areas continue to report the highest number of new COVID-19 cases per capita.

Latino cases are climbing

In Minnesota and across the country, COVID-19 has disproportionately hit communities of color in both cases and deaths. This has been especially true for Minnesotans of Hispanic descent during much of the pandemic.

Distrust of the government, along with deep-rooted health and economic disparities, have hampered efforts to step up testing among communities of color, officials say, especially among unauthorized immigrants who fear their information. personal data are used to expel them.

Similar trends hold for native residents of Minnesota. Counts among Aboriginal people jumped in October relative to the population.

Cases among all races and ethnicities continue to increase, although currently the growth is the slowest among blacks in Minnesota, who have reported the highest number of new COVID-19 cases per capita for much. spring and summer.

‘The honest and horrible truth’

State health systems scramble to staff hospital beds as COVID-19 cases increase and doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers struggle to cope the disease within their own families and colleagues.

Officials are now bracing for an expected new wave of cases and hospitalizations from Thanksgiving holiday gatherings.

The public needs to know that the state’s health care system is under serious stress, Dr. Cindy Firkins Smith, president of Carris Health in western Minnesota, told MPR News on Monday.

“We have to tell it like it is. We have to give people the honest and horrible truth of what we are up against, ”she said. “We have to tell them, ‘If you don’t. If you, the public, don’t do what you can do, we can’t save you because there are only a limited number of people to take care of people.

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Developments around the State

Gophers-Northwestern match canceled for COVID

The University of Minnesota has canceled its Saturday Big 10 soccer game with Northwestern University due to COVID-19.

The game will not be rescheduled and will be judged without a competition as per Big Ten policy this season, the U said in a statement on Monday, adding that it still hopes to play a game at the University of Nebraska on December 12. .

As of November 19, the Gophers football program has recorded 47 positive cases, including 21 student-athletes and 26 staff (anyone participating in the daily tests who is not a student-athlete).

U called off their game in Wisconsin last week.

– The MPR News team

COVID-positive inmate dies in Rush City prison

An inmate at the Minnesota Correctional Center in Rush City has died after being diagnosed with COVID-19.

The Corrections Department reported on Sunday that the 57-year-old man died at a Saint-Paul hospital on Saturday evening. This is the fifth COVID-related death of an inmate at the Minnesota state prison during the pandemic – and the first at the Rush City facility.

The man’s name has not been released.

Officials said on Sunday that Rush City Prison had 49 inmates and 21 staff with active cases of COVID-19. More than 150 other inmates at the facility have tested positive and have recovered, according to data on the department’s website. The facility houses around 900 inmates.

Two inmates from other prisons are in critical condition and are being treated on ventilators in hospitals due to COVID-19, the department said on Sunday. Several employees of the Department of Correctional Services are also hospitalized.

The department said it had “carried out comprehensive tests on all incarcerated people and staff at our facilities” and had taken other measures to prevent and slow the spread of the coronavirus.

– The MPR News team

The University of Minnesota football program announced on Saturday night that 15 other people on the team had tested positive for COVID-19.

This includes eight athletes and seven staff. This brings the total number of football players and staff who have tested positive since November 19 to 40 – 20 athletes and 20 staff.

The football schedule halted all team-related activities last week, including the cancellation of Saturday’s game against Wisconsin.

Minnesota is scheduled to host the Northwest from Dec.5. Gophers officials said they will give a status update on the team on Tuesday.

– The MPR News team

U to research COVID-19 outbreaks and immigrants

A new research center at the University of Minnesota will focus on controlling COVID-19 outbreaks in immigrant communities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded U of M a $ 5 million grant to establish the National Resource Center for Refugees, Immigrants and Migrants. It will work with local health services to train providers in culturally appropriate care.

Shailey Prasad, professor of medicine who heads the center, said the evidence shows the virus has disproportionately affected communities of color. Many, he said, “are essential workers like farm workers or workers in food processing plants and have difficulty maintaining social distancing, for example, or perhaps difficulty accessing Health care.”

The center plans to identify obstacles and help with mitigation.

– Riham Feshir | MPR News

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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.