February 28 update on COVID-19 in MN: Vaccinations reach new record high

3 things to know:

• Record an increase in vaccinations of one day

• Waltz: Shots for All Minnesotans by Summer

• Officials: children, families must now be tested every 2 weeks

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Minnesota set a new record for COVID-19 vaccinations on Sunday, with nearly 70,000 new doses. This beats the old record, set the previous day, of about 56,000 doses.

The increase comes after many appointments were canceled earlier this month due to supply disruptions due to cold weather. Now those delayed doses are flowing to the state and into Minnesotans’ arms.

More than 47,000 of the newly reported vaccinations were given the first doses to people who had never been vaccinated before.

Minnesota has averaged more than 34,000 vaccinations over the past week – the highest since vaccinations began in December.

Here’s Minnesota’s current COVID-19 statistics:

• 6 483 deaths (8 new)

• 484,594 positive cases (813 new), 470,819 discounts on isolation (97 percent)

• 7.3 million tests, 3.5 million Minnesotans tested (about 61 percent of the population)

• 16 percent of Minnesotans vaccinated with at least one dose

Minnesota has now administered 1,338,841 doses of COVID-19.

The vaccination came after Gov. Tim Walz said Thursday that every Minnesotan should get a chance by summer. At the current rate of about 34,000 doses per day, 80 percent of Minnesotans would get a chance by August. But there is reason to believe that the vaccination rate could rise, including the newly approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which requires just one dose, and which will start in states next week.

Minnesota currently ranks 17th among states in doses administered per 100,000 people, according to data collected by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Respectively in cases, but measures relatively stable

In terms of vaccination, COVID-19 numbers in Minnesota show that the state is fairly stable, although there has been a slight increase in new and active cases.

Hospitalization rates remain encouraging and remain at the levels last seen before the drop in cases. There were 263 people with COVID-19 in Minnesota hospitals as of Thursday; 60 patients required intensive care.

Eight newly reported deaths increased Minnesota’s toll to 6,483. Among the deceased, about 63 percent lived in long-term care or assistance facilities; most had underlying health problems.

The state has so far recorded 484,594 confirmed or probable cases so far in the pandemic, including 813 reported Sunday. About 97 percent of Minnesotans known to be infected with COVID-19 in the pandemic have recovered to the point that they no longer need to be isolated.

Cases spread across age groups, regions

People in their twenties still form the age group with the largest number of confirmed cases in the state – more than 91,000 since the pandemic began, including 48,000 among people aged 20 to 24.

The number of high school teens confirmed with the disease has also grown, with more than 37,000 total cases among those aged 15 to 19 years since the pandemic began.

Although young people are less likely to experience the worst effects of the disease and are eventually admitted to hospital, experts are concerned that the youth will unknowingly spread it to older family members and members of other vulnerable populations.

People can have the coronavirus and spread COVID-19 if they have no symptoms.

Regionally, most parts of Minnesota are significantly lower than late November and early December, as well as a smaller rise in January.

There has been a moderate increase in cases in northwestern Minnesota recently, although it is unclear why.

Earlier this week, Dan Huff, an assistant health commissioner, expressed concern about the rise seen in the northwestern and west-central regions, saying it shows the state needs to be vigilant against the spread.

“The vaccines are coming and going, and this is fantastic news, but we are not there yet,” he said, adding that the state did not have enough people vaccinated “to stop the next wave.”

Cases are still the heaviest among coloreds

In Minnesota and across the state, COVID-19 hit communities of color excessively hard in both cases and deaths. This is especially true for Minnesotans of Spanish descent for much of the pandemic.

Although the number of new cases continues to decline from the end of November, to early December, the data show that Latino people are still being hit hard.

The distrust of the government, coupled with deep-rooted health and economic disparities, has hampered efforts to promote testing among color communities, officials say, especially among unauthorized immigrants who fear their personal information could be used to deport them.

Distrust by color communities ‘is the thing that has plagued us for some time,’ Walz said at an information session on Tuesday to promote vaccinations for people of color.

Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said it was a ‘real problem’ that the data was not broken down by race and ethnicity, but that the state might have information to share in the coming week.

Families with children are requested to test every 2 weeks

As children increasingly return to school buildings and sports, Minnesota public health officials are appealing to Minnesota families with children to be tested for COVID-19 every two weeks until the end of the school year.

While not a requirement, the effort will help protect the state’s progress in limiting the spread of the virus, Huff told reporters Wednesday.

Families can use the state test home program, go to a community test site or work with their own health care provider, Huff said.

“We are not asking schools or youth organizations to provide this testing,” he added. “This is a recommendation for all youth, personally, back to school, youth sports, extracurricular activities.”

Huff noted that the state’s teacher tests so far show a very low level of COVID-19 in the population. According to Huff, about 72,000 educators were tested with only a positive rate of 0.35 percent. Officials find a rate of 5 percent as cause for concern.

Walz said Thursday that 88 percent of the state’s public school districts and charter schools now offer personal learning.

“We can not do it fast enough”

Walz on Thursday planned to get COVID-19 shots in the arms of every Minnesotan who wants one by the summer, while maintaining the state’s short-term focus on residents 65 and older. He even suggested that the Minnesota State Fair would be possible this year.

“The finish line is there. Let’s finish this thing,” Walz said in comments that were mostly raised about the state’s current circumstances at the one-year anniversary of the first Minnesotan showing COVID-19 symptoms.

Walz said the state will no longer be eligible for COVID-19 vaccines until at least 70 percent of residents 65 and older receive a first dose – a threshold officials expect to reach by the end of March.

Once this threshold is met, Minnesota will open up vaccinations to others based on underlying health conditions and workplace exposure, including approximately 45,000 employees working at Minnesota’s food processing plants.

The governor and other officials indicated that their timeline was conservative and expressed the hope that it would move faster as more supplies – including the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine now under federal review – became available.

“We can not do this fast enough. Every governor in this country hears the same things,” Walz said of vaccinations. “It’s simply a supply and demand question, people. There are not enough vaccines yet.”

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COVID-19 in Minnesota

The data in these graphs are based on the cumulative totals of Minnesota’s Department of Health released daily at 11 p.m. You can find more detailed statistics on COVID-19 at the Website of the Department of Health.

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Developments from across the state

New Minnesota Center for Public Health Anti-Racism Research

A new center at the University of Minnesota will focus on research against racism in public health.

The launch of the center was spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic and the racial movement that followed the assassination of George Floyd. Founding director Rachel Hardeman said she hopes the center will strengthen public health education when it comes to racial differences.

As a black woman with deep roots in Minnesota, Hardeman said she is passionate about creating a vision that engages communities in research and comes up with solutions.

“It’s definitely not the norm to go to the community and say ‘you tell me what to ask, you tell me what to do, what do you need to feel safe?'” Hardeman said. , “and so much of the knowledge and so much of the solutions is there, but we just did not ask the right people.”

The university received a $ 5 million donation from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota to launch the center.

– Riham Feshir | MPR News

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Top headlines

Food plant workers in the forefront of COVID-19 vaccine: Workers at Minnesota’s food processing plants – which were hit hard by the coronavirus early in the pandemic – will be among the next to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

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