Minnesota’s COVID-19 toll continued to climb Monday with 922 new cases and an extra measure of heartbreak — the first death of a child in the state, a 9-month-old in Clay County, home to Moorhead.
The infant is among the youngest deaths in the country from COVID-19 and the first death in Minnesota for anyone under age 20 who tested positive for COVID-19. The child did not have an underlying health problem and had not been hospitalized, Kris Ehresmann, the state’s infectious disease director, told reporters.
The infant tested positive for COVID-19 and was identified as having an upper and lower respiratory infection; both were counted as causes of death, she said.
“A death involving such a young person is tragic, and certainly very unusual,” said Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm, adding that the state has asked the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to investigate.
Ehresmann said while current knowledge of the coronavirus puts children at lower risk, the possibility of infection is still there and officials are hoping to understand more about how the virus can affect children.
“In general, we have seen fewer cases in kids, we’ve seen fewer cases with hospitalizations and fewer cases with the need for intensive care,” she said, “but what we don’t know — and I think this is true for all ages — we don’t really know the underlying long-term impacts of a COVID infection on an individual.”
Ehresmann added the spread of coronavirus to children is less likely to happen from another child and more likely to come from an adult to children, like in a household setting.
Patterns in Monday’s data continued to reflect what’s been happening for three weeks now — new case counts leaping as deaths and hospitalizations flatten.
The Health Department reported four more deaths, bringing the total to 1,545 since the pandemic began. Total current hospitalizations (247) and those needing intensive care (115) continue to dip.
Officials, however, have been bracing Minnesotans to expect those numbers to rise as cases continue to jump.
One hour late, we’ve finally got #COVID19 stats for Minnesota — and it’s not good. New tests went down, but new cases went up to 922 — a new record high for Minnesota (though tests are more available now than the past). The percent positive today shot up above 5%. pic.twitter.com/yUmlxKSD2D
The 922 infections posted Monday were a record for daily confirmed cases, although officials said the high number comes partly from the fact they are transitioning to a new reporting system, which may make the daily numbers choppy over the next few days.
While people in long-term care continue to account for nearly 80 percent of the deaths from COVID-19, Monday was the first time the state recorded no deaths in long term-care since it started providing such demographic data in early May.
Of Minnesota’s 47,107 confirmed cases since the pandemic began, about 86 percent of those infected have recovered to the point they no longer need to be isolated.
State health officials continue to worry about the recent spike of coronavirus cases in younger Minnesotans, including that those infected will inadvertently spread the virus to more vulnerable populations.
Minnesotans in their 20s now make up the age group with the most confirmed cases with nearly 11,000. The median age of Minnesotans infected has been trending down in recent weeks and is now 37 years old.
Health investigators, however, are starting to see more cases in many age brackets, including ages 30 through 59, as more people get together for family gatherings and summer fun without social distancing, Ehresmann said.
It’s not like the situation the past few weeks where 20-somethings meeting in bars drove the increases. Now, analysts are seeing an evolution in the “larger, gradual increase in social activities,” she added.
While current hospitalization counts in Minnesota remain relatively low, Ehresmann reiterated that officials expect the numbers to go on the march as the new cases climb.
New cases are also rising in northern Minnesota. Cases in Beltrami County have nearly doubled in the past week, from 53 to 101. Ehresmann on Monday said the case increase is tied to spread from a “number of events” including athletic events.
The latest counts come as officials try to get their arms around clusters of problems centered around bars and restaurants.
State investigators say they’ve received some 120 complaints recently from concerned residents reporting violations of the current orders around gathering in indoor social spaces, particularly bars and restaurants, Malcolm said Friday.
Complaints include staff not wearing masks, not enough social distancing and too many people at a site.
Because of that, the state is “stepping up enforcement,” Malcolm said, “not to play gotcha with restaurants and bars but because we feel it’s so essential” to protect Minnesotans.
.@MnDPS_DPS is first sending establishment owners letters (14 letters have been sent), and working with them to correct behaviors. This department has the ability to issue fines and to revoke liquor licenses (effectively closing them).
Malcolm said most bar and restaurant owners who’ve been flagged have responded positively. She also noted that establishments that don’t comply are subject to cease-and-desist orders.
Malcolm said health officials continue to hope that bars, restaurants and other indoor social spaces get the message. The state, she said, is working to avoid “wholesale closure” of these places but that the rise in community spread must be checked.
“But in all candor, I don’t think anything can be considered completely off the table with what we’re seeing around the country and in our own numbers in Minnesota,” she added. “But we clearly would like to explore intermediate measures before that.”
The state’s top public health leaders on Monday reiterated their support for a statewide mask mandate, saying such mandates have proven to help prevent transmission of COVID-19.
Several Minnesota cities already have mask requirements in place. As for a statewide mask mandate, DFL Gov. Tim Walz is weighing the measure, but has yet to enact one — despite pleas from medical groups and the state Health Department.
Walz recently expressed concern that Minnesotans were lagging on their mask-wearing. But Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, R-East Gull Lake, have said a statewide mandate would be a mistake.
On Friday morning, Walz told MPR News that he believes a mask mandate is the right thing to do to slow the spread of the coronavirus but that he hasn’t yet made a decision on whether to issue a statewide order.
“I’m trying to get them to buy in,” Walz said of Gazelka and others who oppose a statewide mandate. “It’s unfortunate that around masks, it became somewhat of a political statement rather than a public health statement.”
More than half of U.S. states now require the use of masks or face coverings in public settings.
Many of the outbreaks outside the Twin Cities metro area are focused around meatpacking plants. Officials have intensified testing in those hot spots, uncovering more infections.
That includes Mower County in southeastern Minnesota, where there were 1,008 confirmed cases as of Monday. Mower County is home to Hormel Foods and Quality Pork Processors. Both have been partnering with Mayo Clinic to ramp up employee testing.
While some of Mower County’s positive cases are associated with people who work in the facilities and with the people they live with, county officials say they are also seeing transmission among people who live in the county but work in other counties where coronavirus is present.
Nobles, in southwestern Minnesota, reported 1,706 confirmed cases as of Monday, with six deaths. About 1 in 13 people now have tested positive for COVID-19 in the county since the pandemic began, although the count of new cases has slowed considerably in recent weeks.
Worthington’s massive JBS pork processing plant was the epicenter of the Nobles outbreak. The JBS plant shut on April 20 but has since reopened with expanded hygiene and health monitoring measures.
Similar problems have been reported in Stearns County, where COVID-19 cases tied to two packing plants — Pilgrim’s Pride poultry plant in Cold Spring and Jennie-O Turkey in Melrose — skyrocketed in May. An undisclosed number of workers at both plants have tested positive for the virus.
There were about 55 confirmed cases in Stearns County in early May. By Monday, confirmed cases were at 2,643 with 19 deaths.
Kandiyohi County in west-central Minnesota is also dealing with a significant caseload more than two months after officials with the Jennie-O turkey processing plant there said some employees had tested positive for the coronavirus.
As of Monday, the Health Department reported 613 people have now tested positive. The county had confirmed three COVID-19 cases in late April.
Cases have also climbed noticeably in Lyon County (378 cases) around a turkey processor in Marshall.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport will be instituting a mask requirement next Monday.
The Metropolitan Airports Commission voted Monday to institute the mandate, although many airlines, businesses and other airports already require face coverings.
The new regulation applies in all public spaces of the airport, as well as in all spaces that cannot accommodate the social distance. Facial coating regulations apply to parking ramps, buses, trams and car rental.
Twin Cities Airport said data kiosks on the terminals would provide masks to others who don’t have a mask.
– Tim Nelson MPR News
U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar and Minnesota fitness officials are calling on the federal government to release a national effort to recruit plasma donors among those who have recovered from COVID-19.
Klobuchar, D-Minn., spoke Sunday at M Health Fairview in Minneapolis.
COVID-19 survivors would possibly have antibodies that may be key protections for others with severe coronavirus infections. And although the plasma donations containing these antibodies were found to be large, stocks declined.
Klobuchar said Minnesota had led the way: her own husband donated plasma to the Mayo Clinic after being seriously with COVID-19.
“But many places across the country that have even higher COVID grades than we do here in Minnesota simply pay no attention to the desire to donate plasma. That’s why we want to make it known nationally,” he says.
Dr. Claudia Cohn, associate lab director and lab director at M Health Fairview’s blood bank, said New York has 10% of the plasma of patients recovered from what they once had.
And while he says studies are still discovering the use of plasma as a treatment, donations from patients with COVID-19 are probably one of the fastest and most favorable characteristics to help others get coronavirus infections.
“Call the Memorial Blood Centers, go online. Call the American Red Cross. Make an appointment to donate your convalescence plasma. It takes less than two hours, about 90 minutes,” he said. “And an unwrified donation allows you to give 3 sets of convalescent plasma. That’s 3 lives you’ve potentially saved.”
Klobuchar said he was running with Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi to protect the feds for the plasma donation campaign.
– Tim Nelson MPR News
State law prevents students 16 and older from receiving benefits.
Cole Stevens, of the youth-led campaign, Don’t Forget US, told a House committee Friday that he had been fired from his meal job at the site of the closure of COVID-19. Contributes to family bills.
Stevens, 18, originally from Bloomington, said he won unemployment assistance and then retired when the state discovered him ineligible. When you work, you use your source of income to contribute to family bills.
“I’m not just some lazy teenager trying to maximize his welfare here,” Stevens said. “I needed that money back then when I was in high school and I wasn’t able to get it.”
A pending bill at the Legislature’s special consultation would allow student staff to be eligible for benefits. The proposal would be a transitional solution covering the months of March to December this year.
The House Committee on Economic Development and Employment completed the bill with nine votes to 6. The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, which manages unemployment benefits, supports change.
DEED commissioner Steve Grove suggested lawmakers review a 1930 law that prevents young people from qualifying for unemployment.
“If you’re old enough to work, you should be old enough to get unemployment benefits when you can’t work,” Grove said.
Grove told Minnesota “far behind” that many other states had already adjusted their legislation to accommodate young workers displaced.
“These aren’t just young people with summer jobs for fun. For many of those students, those unemployment benefits are number one or at least the secondary breadwinner of their families,” Grove said. “This cash is used for food on the table, for garments on the back, allowing those families to go through really difficult times. And when they can’t work, it’s even more complicated.”
The competing proposals of the House and Senate differ as to whether the cash would come from a federal aid program or the unemployment fund.
– Brian Bakst MPR News
Masks are now required in the inner public area of St. Cloud: The St. Cloud City Council on Monday night, the last city in Minnesota that requires a mask in indoor public places. After a lengthy debate, the city council voted five to two to approve the emergency order, which takes effect immediately.
Some Minnesota employers are pleased to see the end of more unemployment benefits: the improved unemployment benefits to help offset the economic hit of the COVID-19 pandemic expire at the end of the week if Congress doesn’t act. Some employers that have these higher benefits have prevented others from returning to the workforce.
The knowledge in these charts is in the cumulative Minnesota Department of Health totals published at 11:00 a.m. daily. More detailed statistics on COVID-19 can be found on the Ministry of Health’s website.
Coronavirus is transmitted through breathing droplets, coughs and sneezings, to the same extent that the flu can spread.
Correction (July 20, 2020): Miss Claudia Cohn’s misspelled call in an earlier edition of this story.
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