MinnPost provides updates on coronavirus in Minnesota Sunday through Friday. The information is published following a press phone call with members of the Walz administration or after the release of daily COVID-19 figures by the Minnesota Department of Health.
Here are the latest updates from December 4, 2020:
338,973 cases; 3,845 deaths
Sixty-one more Minnesotans have died of COVID-19, the Minnesota Department of Health said Friday, for a total of 3,845.
Of the people whose deaths were announced Friday, 16 were in their 90s, 22 were in their 80s, 19 were in their 70s, three were in their 60s and one was in their 40s. Thirty-six of the 61 people whose deaths announced Friday were residents of long-term care facilities.
Forty-one of the deaths came in Greater Minnesota while 20 came in the seven-county Twin Cities metro area. In the week between Nov. 27 and Dec. 3, there were 199 deaths reported in Greater Minnesota and 109 in the metro.
There have been 252 deaths reported through four days of December, which is more than the death toll in the months of July (159), August (216) and September (219).
MDH also said Friday there have been 338,973 total cases of COVID-19 in Minnesota. That number is up 5,347 from the total announced on Thursday and is based on 60,544 new tests. Minnesota’s seven-day positive case average, which lags by a week, is 10.2 percent and continues to decline. It is still well above 5-percent, which health officials say is a concerning sign of widespread outbreak.
The most recent data available show 367 Minnesotans are hospitalized in intensive care with COVID-19, and 1,312 are in the hospital with COVID-19 not in intensive care. You can find more information about Minnesota’s current ICU usage and capacity here.
More information on cases can be found here.
Cases, deaths, rise in long-term care facilities
As COVID-19 spiked around Minnesota in October and November, cases and deaths in long-term care facilities such as nursing homes also increased, health officials told reporters Friday.
Despite state efforts to use testing, protective equipment and other means to insulate the facilities, which typically house the elderly and people with underlying health conditions that make them vulnerable to severe cases of COVID-19, the disease has crept in.
MDH Commissioner Jan Malcolm said from the start of September through the end of October, new cases in Minnesota increased by 73 percent, but new cases in long-term care facilities increased by only 15 percent. From the beginning of October through the end of November, however, new cases in the state and in long-term care facilities increased by more than 400 percent, Malcolm said.
“Even the strongest floodwalls aren’t sufficient if the waters rise high enough,” Malcolm said MDH Commissioner Jan Malcolm.
The escalating impact of COVID-19 has forced many long-term care facilities to restrict people from visiting residents. Malcolm said federal data show Minnesota has the 31st-highest number of cases among residents of long-term care facilities per 1,000 residents compared to other states. Minnesota has the 27th-highest number of deaths in long-term care per 1,000 residents.
Of the 3,845 COVID-19 deaths in Minnesota, 2,559 have been among residents of long-term care.
Today on MinnPost
- As deadline looms, Minnesota struggles to spend COVID funds set aside for rental, mortgage assistance.
- Asking yourself how long it’s been since this all started? Us too.
- As always, a look at the numbers on the MinnPost COVID-19 dashboard.
Around the web
- ‘Absolutely normal’: Covid vaccine side effects are no reason to avoid the shots, doctors say. Story by the Washington Post.
- WHO trial finds no benefit of four drugs for hospital COVID patients, according to the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.
- How 700 epidemiologists are living now, and what they think is next, reports the New York Times.
MDH’s coronavirus website: https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/index.html
MDH’s phone line for COVID-19 questions, Mon.-Fri. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m: 651-297-1304
As prophesied, the anti-maskers, herd mentality, don’t shut anything down, its like the flu, the Governor is an overreacting dictator, etc. etc etc. are the first ones to come up with some non-scientific line of BS to barge in line and get the vaccination!
https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-gop-legislative-leaders-want-lawmakers-and-staff-to-receive-early-vaccinations/573296401/
Thanks so much for the latest weekly breakdown of deaths in Twin Cites v Greater MN: 109 to 199!
Simply stunning, given that Greater MN has perhaps half the populace of the metro area.
“Between October and the end of November, the number of new COVID-19 cases in Minnesota’s long-term care facilities soared by more than 400% — the biggest two-month spike in cases since April, state health officials said. So far, 67% of the 3,845 COVID-19 deaths have occurred in long-term care communities, state records show.” Star Tribune 12/5
It looks like “Unilateral Tim” is trying to do to the State what he has accomplished in LTC faculties. In the Month of May he announced his battle against Covid in LTC facilities.
It would be difficult for an interpretation of the data to be any more wrongheaded than this. And I thought the outrage from the “conservative” side of the aisle was that Walz was doing so much worse in suppressing the virus in LTC? Now that the percentages are roughly equal (even during a huge spike when elderly LTC residents are clearly more at risk!), the goal posts are shifted again. Naturally!
The State is experiencing a deadly spike brought on by relaxing restrictions too much, with the much greater burden now falling on the (proudly) anti-mask Freedom Fighters in heavily Repub counties of MN (and SD and ND and WI and IA). With our Repubs in St Paul daily screaming “Let the kids play!” and “Open for business!” and “End the Tyranny now!” And you blame the Governor.
Well, he is to blame for something: for kowtowing to “conservative” demands and fantasies about Covid-19! But Repubs can hardly criticize him for following their prescriptions…
And your point is all those greater MN folks were abiding by the guidelines? Like protesting in front of the Gov’s house, or off to Sturgis, or in front of the capital, or a T**** gathering etc. etc. etc. etc. Your derivative thinking is very, very severely flawed. Your suggestion appears to be because the Gov said “dictated” it, everyone did it! From this perspective that is a 100% false suggestion, and one need look no further than the typical republican or T**** supporter for the evidence. That message seems to be, folks would rather die and take as many of their family, friends neighbors etc. with them, than to take advice from the Gov or the medical folks.
Well. The only thing to say is Oh. My. God.