COVID-19: Coverage of the pandemic from MPR News

The latest news, resources, guides and tips to help you stay up to date on the coronavirus pandemic.

U.S. Rings In New Year With Subdued Celebrations
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged people find an alternative option for celebrating the holiday — with an aim to avoid large crowds and indoor gatherings.
Florida becomes 3rd U.S. state to identify new coronavirus variant
"The individual is a male in his 20s with no history of travel. The Department is working with the CDC on this investigation," Florida Department of Health officials announced Thursday.
Wisconsin hospital worker arrested for spoiled vaccine doses
Authorities have arrested a suburban Milwaukee pharmacist suspected of deliberately ruining hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine by removing it from refrigeration for two nights.
Can vaccine myths spreading on social media be stopped? 
Misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine is pervasive, both on social media and in conversations. Let’s separate fact from fiction. 
'We will get through this': Doctor reflects on the impacts of COVID-19 in Indian Country
Nine months into the coronavirus pandemic, Indigenous Americans have the highest COVID-19 mortality rates nationwide. That's made this an especially difficult year for Dr. Mary Owen, who leads the University of Minnesota Medical School's Center of American Indian and Minority Health in Duluth.
Nursing home residents celebrate vaccine rollout: 'Everyone should get it'
Thousands of nursing home residents across Minnesota began receiving their first doses of COVID-19 vaccine this week. On Wednesday afternoon, that included 94-year-old Shirley Bethke. She’s a resident of the Gardens of Episcopal Homes in St. Paul.
Health care workers try to bring COVID-19 patients joy, less isolation as life ends
Medical staff are liaisons to the sick and dying for relatives not allowed at bedsides. The emotional toil at one Montana hospital is a case study of what caregivers are grappling with across the U.S.
U.S. likely will miss goal of vaccinating 20 million by the new year
Leaders of the nation's federal vaccine effort, called Operation Warp Speed, said the U.S. has deployed around 14 million vaccine doses as of Wednesday with just 2.1 million Americans vaccinated.
Dec. 31 update on COVID-19 in MN: A glimmer of hope at the end of a brutal year
Minnesota is seeing signs of improvement heading into the new year, after two months of spikes in new cases, hospitalizations and deaths. The COVID-19 death count, however, remains awful. December has been the state’s deadliest month, by far, in the pandemic. Thursday’s data from the Health Department showed those trends staying much the same.