Nov. 2 update on COVID-19 in MN: 'It's going to get worse'; 3K more cases
Updated: 3:06 p.m.
An explosion of COVID-19 cases that turned October into one of Minnesota’s worst months in the pandemic is spilling over into November.
The Health Department on Monday reported nearly 3,000 newly confirmed and probable cases of the disease, and nine more deaths.
The state is currently seeing cases expand rapidly in every region of the state, every age bracket and every racial or ethnic group. That’s different from earlier in the pandemic when outbreaks were concentrated in particular areas or demographics.
“Minnesota is in a bad spot … and it’s going to get worse before it gets better,” Kris Ehresmann, the state’s infectious disease director, told reporters as she implored Minnesotans to wear masks in public gathering spaces, socially distance and take other measures to stem the spread.
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Health investigators, she added, are increasingly seeing people with COVID-19 reluctant to provide details that would help trace the disease’s path. “This just accelerates the spread that were seeing even more.”
Ehresmann and Minnesota Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said the state is in danger of becoming as bad as Wisconsin in terms of uncontrolled spread of the disease, and they put the onus on individuals to do more to keep the virus from spreading.
“If we’re wondering what somebody else is going to do to fix this COVID problem, we’re missing the point,” Malcolm said.
Active cases at record high
The newest numbers come following a weekend of more than 5,000 newly confirmed cases and 38 deaths, ending one of the worst weeks for Minnesota in the pandemic.
The rampant spread is being driven now by the “thousands of seemingly small decisions” Minnesotans make daily to meet and gather with others without wearing masks, socially distancing or taking other steps to stem the spread, Malcolm told reporters last week.
She reiterated that Monday, noting that cases among health care workers are growing rapidly. They’re getting exposed in the community and bringing it into their health care workplaces.
“It’s not just one or two big notable events that’s causing this incredibly high level of community spread. It's a happy hour with a couple of friends, brunch on the weekends. It’s the weddings,” Malcolm said of the casual interactions now creating big problems. “These are the scenarios driving spread."
COVID-19 hospitalizations and intensive care cases remained high. Health Department data put the number at 774 hospitalizations and 195 ICU cases.
Of the 153,620 cases of the disease confirmed in the pandemic to date, about 86 percent have recovered to the point they no longer need to be isolated.
Nine deaths reported Monday raised Minnesota’s toll to 2,484. Among those who’ve died, about 70 percent had been living in long-term care or assisted living facilities; most had underlying health problems.
Caseloads rising across age groups
New cases are up dramatically over the past month in all age groups.
People in their 20s still make up the age bracket with the state’s largest number of confirmed cases — nearly 33,000 since the pandemic began, including more than 18,300 among people ages 20-24.
The number of high school-age children confirmed with the disease has also grown, with more than 13,000 total cases among children ages 15 to 19 since the pandemic began.
Those numbers help explain why experts remain particularly concerned about teens and young adults as spreaders of the virus.
While less likely to feel the worst effects of the disease and end up hospitalized, experts worry youth and young adults will spread it to grandparents and other vulnerable populations. It’s especially concerning because people can have the coronavirus and spread COVID-19 when they don’t have symptoms.
That led Gov. Tim Walz on last week to urge testing Minnesotans ages 18 to 35, a group he says is driving much of the asymptomatic virus spread.
"We want them to get tested so they can then know if they're infected so they can isolate,” added Dan Huff, an assistant state health commissioner. “That will help us stop that source of transmission in an area we just see as a major reservoir for the disease spreading out through the state."
Cases surging along Minnesota’s western border
Regionally, central and northern Minnesota have driven much of the recent increase in new cases while Hennepin and Ramsey counties show some of the slowest case growth in the state.
Newly reported cases are highest in northwestern Minnesota. The data doesn’t explain why. However, cases are surging currently in the Dakotas. North Dakota and South Dakota have the country’s worst per-capita spread rates.
Collectively, rural areas of Minnesota continue to report the most new COVID-19 cases.
Northern Minnesota, once the region least affected by the disease, has also seen its caseload grow dramatically in recent weeks.
Western and northwestern Minnesota continue to see cases rise swiftly relative to it population.
The top 12 counties with the worst spread in Minnesota are all outside the Twin Cities metro area, Ehresmann said Monday. Southwestern Minnesota is a particular concern, although unlike past outbreaks, these can’t be tied to a meatpacking plant, event or workplace.
Latino, Indigenous cases jump
In Minnesota and across the country, COVID-19 has hit communities of color disproportionately hard in both cases and deaths.
Minnesotans of Hispanic descent are testing positive for COVID-19 at about five times the rate of white Minnesotans. They, along with Black Minnesotans, are also being hospitalized and moved to intensive care units at higher rates than the overall population.
Similar trends hold true for Minnesota’s Indigenous residents. Counts among Indigenous people have jumped in October relative to population. The number of new COVID-19 cases among Native Americans has grown by about 75 percent in recent weeks.
October data also show newly confirmed cases accelerating among Latino people in Minnesota.
Distrust of the government, together with deeply rooted health and economic disparities, have hampered efforts to boost testing among communities of color, particularly for unauthorized immigrants who fear their personal information may be used to deport them.
Developments around the state
MN opens saliva testing sites to Wisconsinites
As COVID-19 cases surge to the east, Gov. Tim Walz has opened saliva testing sites in St. Paul, Winona and Duluth to people living in Wisconsin, according to the Minnesota Department of Health.
Minnesota is investing at least $14 million of its federal CARES Act funding into saliva coronavirus testing, a process developed at Rutgers University and marketed by Vault Health.
Public health officials say it's a relatively easy and fast way to test more people for the virus.
Some of the Minnesota's CARES Act funding will go to covering the cost of the test, and Minnesota is working out an agreement to make sure Wisconsin covers the cost of the test for its residents.
— Catharine Richert | MPR News
Another round of free testing scheduled in Minnesota communities
Minnesota health officials have scheduled another round of free COVID-19 testing sites this week in communities around the state.
The free nasal swab tests will be offered Wednesday and Thursday in Burnsville, Fergus Falls, Mora and Pipestone.
Find more details — and schedule an appointment — on the Minnesota Department of Health website.
Officials said the free testing sites are targeted to areas with COVID-19 outbreaks, or barriers to accessing existing test sites.
Free saliva testing sites are now open in Duluth, Winona, Moorhead, Brooklyn Park, Mankato, St. Cloud and St. Paul. Find more information here.
— MPR News Staff
Surge has dire impacts on Mayo’s NW Wisconsin system
Mayo Clinic's northwest Wisconsin system is halting elective procedures as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations surge.
Hospital officials say they're going to shift staff and beds to handle COVID-19 patients.
In the last week, the region's COVID-19 hospitalization load has doubled from 35 to 70. It’s the highest COVID-19 case load in the entire Mayo system.
Regional administration leader Jason Craig said a combination of high case counts, hospitalizations and limited staff have created a dire situation.
"What you saw on the news earlier this year in the spring in place like New York City, that's happening in the Chippewa Valley right now," he said.
More than 230 staff in the system are out because of COVID-19, he said, either because they have tested positive or because they are quarantining after being exposed. Craig said many of these cases are the result of community transmission.
— Catharine Richert | MPR News
Polling places in MN cities along the Mississippi get masks for Election Day
Thousands of masks have been shipped to polling places along the entire length of the Mississippi River, including cities in Minnesota.
Leaders at the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative coordinated and paid for the PPE deliveries. They say because of dwindling city revenue during the pandemic, some communities can’t afford election day safety measures on their own.
Red Wing, Minn., Mayor Sean Dowse said the city has been cutting taxes and forgiving fees, trying to keep the local economy afloat, so there’s not much money left over for protective gear.
“Minnesota is dealing with a long gradual rise in contagion, it’s really taxing our resources. In my county, Goodhue, new cases have peaked just this last week, and may continue and upward trend for the next few weeks,” Dowse said.
He said the masks will be given mostly to voters arriving at the polls without their own protective gear. Dowse said he hopes the additional gear will help blunt the spike in COVID-19 cases Minnesota has seen this week.
— John Enger | MPR News
Top headlines
COVID-19 forces some poll workers home during Election Day, as others take their place: The COVID-19 pandemic is having an impact on almost every aspect of this year’s election — including who’s staffing polling places. Across the state, younger people are filling in for older election workers who are staying home because of the coronavirus.
Stillwater prison inmate dies after testing positive for COVID-19: The 61-year-old man who died Sunday morning is the third COVID-related death of an inmate in Minnesota state correctional facilities. And it comes as more than 750 of the 1,278 inmates at the Stillwater prison have tested positive for the coronavirus.
COVID-19 in Minnesota
Data in these graphs are based on the Minnesota Department of Health's cumulative totals released at 11 a.m. daily. You can find more detailed statistics on COVID-19 at the Health Department website.