March 30 update on COVID-19 in MN: Vaccination upswing; active cases trend higher
3 things to know
About 1.6 million people with at least 1 dose; 1 million fully vaccinated
Actives cases trending higher
State opens vaccine eligibility to all adults
Updated: 12:19 p.m.
Minnesota’s vaccination pace is on the upswing now after plateauing for several weeks. But active COVID-19 cases are trending higher, too, reinforcing the urgency to get as many Minnesotans inoculated quickly enough to head off another surge of the disease.
The Health Department on Tuesday reported about 35,000 new vaccinations, bringing the seven-day trend up to more than 47,000 shots daily — the highest since vaccinations began in late December.
More than 1 million people are fully inoculated while more than 1.6 million have received at least one dose, including more than 81 percent of people age 65 and older.
Officials remain anxious about rising caseloads tied to the U.K. COVID-19 variant and to youth sports. They’ve confirmed more than 500 cases of the U.K. strain in recent weeks and believe that as many half the state’s new cases may be tied to that variant.
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Tuesday’s data also shows the state’s positive test rate trending above 5 percent — a warning sign about a possible surge — for the first time since January.
The good news is that many of the state’s highest-risk residents, including seniors, have received at least one dose already and Minnesota expects to see its federal vaccine supply shipments jump starting in April.
Active cases up; regional hot spots concerning
After a relatively stable stretch following a late fall surge, warning lights are flashing around Minnesota’s COVID-19 disease data.
The number of known, active is cases has been trending upward over the past few weeks, with just under 13,000 active cases as of Tuesday’s report, marking 12 consecutive days with active counts above 10,000, a stretch not seen since January.
While still low compared to late November and early December, the rising trend is notable given the worries over the rise of the U.K. COVID-19 strain, which state health officials suspect is driving the current upswing.
Hospitalizations are low compared to the late-fall surge, but those counts have been creeping up as well. Health Department data showed 357 people with COVID-19 in Minnesota hospitals; 89 needed intensive care.
One death reported on Tuesday raised Minnesota’s overall pandemic death toll to 6,836. Among those who’ve died, about 62 percent had been living in long-term care or assisted living facilities; most had underlying health problems.
The state has recorded 517,881 total confirmed or probable cases so far in the pandemic, including 1,278 posted Tuesday. About 96 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.
Regionally, all parts of Minnesota are in better shape than they were in late November and early December, but many parts of the state are seeing upticks in cases recently.
Public health leaders continue to keep watch on clusters in the southwest Twin Cities metro area — specifically Carver and Scott counties — as well as the Mankato area and the eastern Iron Range, centered around the town of Aurora. There’s also an outbreak now in Ely, northeast of Aurora.
Cases spread across age groups
People in their 20s still make up the age bracket with the state’s largest number of confirmed cases — nearly 97,000 since the pandemic began, including more than 50,000 among those ages 20 to 24.
The number of high school-age youth confirmed with the disease has also grown, with more than 41,000 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. Those with the coronavirus can spread it when they don’t have symptoms.
Caseloads 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 have offered up some data on vaccinations broken down by race and ethnicity. The state is updating the data weekly.
Jan Malcolm, the state health commissioner, has said the state is 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.
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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