March 10 update on COVID-19 in MN: Vaccination pace flattens; conditions steady
3 things to know:
Minnesota expands eligibility; shots may be open to all by late April
Nearly 70 percent of 65-plus population with at least 1 dose
Worries continue over Carver County youth sports outbreak
Updated: 5:33 p.m.
Minnesota’s vaccination pace has moderated a bit but remains on the right path, enough so that it may be possible to start offering a shot to every Minnesota adult by late April.
The Health Department on Wednesday reported about 23,000 new vaccinations. The seven-day trend is running at more than 40,000 shots daily, down slightly from Tuesday’s high.
Because doses are shipped once a week, the state often sees its vaccination counts jump from Thursday through Sunday. Overall, the trend is good.
Agency data shows more than 615,000 people — 11.1 percent of the state’s population — have completed their vaccinations, while more than 1.1 million — about 19.8 percent — had received at least one dose, including 68 percent of people age 65 and older.
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Officials continue to urge Minnesotans to stay vigilant against the disease, wearing masks in public gathering spaces and socially distancing. Concern continues to bubble around an ongoing outbreak of COVID-19 in Carver County that includes the worrisome U.K. strain.
State public health leaders have described their push to vaccinate Minnesotans as a race against another possible surge in the disease.
They’ve said for weeks they’d be ready to ramp up vaccinations when they got more supply. With more than 127,000 doses expected this week in Minnesota and the federal government vowing to increase supplies to the states, the table seems set.
Walz and state health officials on Tuesday expanded vaccine eligibility to another 1.8 million Minnesotans.
On Wednesday, state Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm received a dose of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine on camera in an effort to show trust in the vaccine approved late last month. Appointments for the J&J vaccine offered by clinics across the state have been slower to fill, Malcolm said, and that’s due to early discussions about the vaccine's effectiveness compared to the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.
“We just want to reinforce the effectiveness at that most critical end of the continuum of severe disease and hospitalization and death,” Malcolm said during a news conference before receiving the shot. “I think that as word gets out that this is a highly effective vaccine where it matters most, hopefully any concerns people have about its effectiveness can be addressed.”
Minnesota ranks 17th among states in doses administered per 100,000 people, according to data collected by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Disease metrics stable
Minnesota’s COVID-19 numbers show disease conditions continue to be mostly stable.
Hospitalization rates remain at levels last seen before the late-fall surge in cases. Known, active cases came in at around 7,000 on Wednesday, continuing a trend that’s held steady through February and remains down dramatically from late November and early December.
Nine deaths brought Minnesota’s collective in the pandemic toll to 6,705. Among those who’ve died, about 63 percent had been living in long-term care or assisted living facilities; most had underlying health problems.
The state has recorded 493,013 total confirmed or probable cases so far in the pandemic, including 922 posted Wednesday. About 97 percent of Minnesotans known to be infected with COVID-19 in the pandemic have recovered to the point where they no longer need to be isolated.
Officials urged COVID-19 watchers not to read anything into Tuesday’s data around new daily cases and deaths. They said data error issues resulted in 138 deaths and 891 new cases showing up in Tuesday’s data that are from months ago.
The Health Department said the problems were tied to four private labs that failed to report positive tests to the state including from nursing homes. The agency said the problem was discovered during an audit. The state declined to name the labs because they are being investigated.
Cases spread across age groups, regions
People in their 20s still make up the age bracket with the state’s largest number of confirmed cases — more than 92,000 since the pandemic began, including more than 48,000 among those ages 20 to 24.
The number of high school-age youth confirmed with the disease has also grown, with more than 38,000 total cases among those ages 15 to 19 since the pandemic began.
With kids increasingly returning to school buildings and sports, Minnesota public health officials are urging Minnesota families with children to get tested every two weeks for COVID-19 now until the end of the school year.
Although young people are less likely to feel the worst effects of the disease and end up hospitalized, experts worry youth will spread it unknowingly to older relatives and members of other vulnerable populations.
People can have the coronavirus and spread COVID-19 when they don’t have symptoms.
Regionally, most parts of Minnesota are down significantly from the late November and early December spike, as well as a smaller January uptick.
Caseloads still heaviest among people of color
In Minnesota and across the country, COVID-19 has hit communities of color disproportionately hard in both cases and deaths. That’s been especially true for Minnesotans of Hispanic descent for much of the pandemic.
Even as new case counts continue to track well below their late November, early December peaks, the data shows Latino people continue to be hit hard.
Distrust of the government, together with deeply rooted health and economic disparities, have hampered efforts to boost testing among communities of color, officials say, especially among unauthorized immigrants who fear their personal information may be used to deport them.
Walz has acknowledged that distrust by communities of color has been a problem during the pandemic. Officials on Friday offered up some data on vaccinations broken down by race and ethnicity.
Minnesota Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said the state was committed to doing more to expand vaccine access to people of color, including getting more doses to community pharmacies, partnering with local groups and deploying mobile vaccination clinics.
Concerns over UK variant’s spread continue
Minnesota health officials continue to warn of a growing outbreak of the U.K. COVID-19 strain centered around youth sports in Carver County. They are recommending, but not ordering, a two-week suspension of youth sports in the county amid the outbreak.
Since late January, there have been at least 80 COVID-19 cases linked to school and club sports in the metro-area county. Among those, 27 have been confirmed to be the U.K. variant, state officials said Monday. Walz on Tuesday said the Health Department would likely be adding more cases to that count.
Epidemiologists have also seen an uptick of the U.K. variant cases in Carver County gyms and fitness centers — with many of those linked to the youth sports cases. The state will open a COVID-19 testing center in Chanhassen in response.
The growth of the variant presents an "added risk that we may see another surge in cases, and we need everyone to do their part to prevent that from happening,” Kris Ehresmann, the state’s infectious disease director, said Monday.
Many of those confirmed cases are young people who are not in line to get a vaccination in the short-term.
It’s not just a Carver County problem, she added, noting that 15 counties have at least one confirmed case of the variant. Minnesota currently knows of 187 confirmed cases.
The U.K. strain is considered more transmissible than other coronavirus variants. While researchers don't believe it's more deadly on its own, its ease of spread may lead to more deaths.
“We’re making progress with vaccines,” she said, “but it is a race against time.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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.
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