Health

Health
Use it or lose it: Parents set wages aside for child care. Now it's at risk
For many families, 2020 ended up being a year with fewer child care expenses. Now parents with unspent funds in their dependent-care flexible spending accounts are trying to figure out what to do.
‘I’m kind of screwed’: Restaurant workers brace themselves for more job loss
With COVID-19 spiking and Gov. Tim Walz ordering more restrictions on bars and restaurants, many staffers feel like they’re about to be out of a job again. But this time, they can’t rely on a $600 a week boost that helped keep them financially afloat in the spring.
 Lawmakers look for ways to help businesses, workers
With another round of COVID-19 restrictions taking effect late Friday, Minnesota lawmakers are looking for ways to help small businesses that might be forced to close and the employees who would be put out of work. Discussions are already underway about what the state can do and when it could happen.
Winter sports practices, extracurriculars allowed to resume in N. Dakota
Giving in to political and public outcry, Republican Gov. Doug Burgum has reversed course and will allow winter sports practices and other extracurricular activities for youth and adults to resume at the end of November, although sports competition will remain suspended until mid-December.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its recommendations one week before the holiday, advising that Americans be careful amid an explosion in the spread of the coronavirus.
Mayo Clinic: 905 staff diagnosed with COVID in past 2 weeks
More than 900 staff members in the Mayo Clinic Health System in the Midwest have been diagnosed with COVID-19 over the last two weeks as the virus continues to surge across the region, officials said.
Health care workers feel squeezed by surge of COVID-19 cases
Hospitalizations for COVID-19 patients in Minnesota are surging. Even when beds are available, staffing them is a challenge as more health care workers get sick. Two physicians discussed the toll of the increase caseload on health care workers.
Not just COVID: Nursing home neglect deaths surge in shadows
As more than 90,000 of America’s long-term care residents have died in the coronavirus pandemic, advocates for the elderly say a tandem wave of death separate from the virus has quietly claimed tens of thousands more, often because overburdened workers haven’t been able to give them the care they need.
As vaccine approvals loom, U.S. funds a back-up plan for delivery
As the U.S. prepares for what will likely be the largest vaccination program in its history, the Trump administration plans to loan $590 million to a Connecticut company with a novel technology.
Restaurants, gyms on the verge of COVID-19 closure worry about employees
“It sounds really bad, but it’s like mom and dad getting divorced and you’re that kid just sitting there saying what’s going to happen to us. That’s what we feel like,” said one Minneapolis chef.