Good morning and best wishes on this Tuesday. Here's your forecast and COVID-19 briefing.
Sunny again, but some nighttime chilliness. Twin Cities highs near 60 with lows getting to the mid-40s at night. Statewide highs from the mid- to upper 50s and down to the upper 20s in the northeast at night. More on Updraft. | Forecast
Again, there are just a few days left of the stay-home order. And, again, Gov. Tim Walz and health officials have a big decision to make. The order expires Monday and Walz could choose to extend it — with or without tweaks — or let it expire. Projections for COVID-19 case growth, intensive care capacity, supplies of protective gear for health workers and economic data are among the drivers for the state leaders’ decision-making, Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said.
Minnesotans are increasingly disregarding the stay-home order, traffic and cellphone data show. And Walz is facing increased criticism of the order from people who say the restrictions have fallen unevenly on businesses.
However, case counts and deaths continue to increase in Minnesota. The governor predicted many customers aren’t yet ready to dine out or gather where there are crowds. “To do this haphazard, and I think of business owners, if you open up and it becomes clear people got sick being there, it’s every bit as damaging as a stay-at-home order,” he said. “So we can’t get it wrong.”
Here are the latest coronavirus statistics: 11,799 confirmed cases via 115,781 tests591 deaths1,716 cases requiring hospitalization452 remain hospitalized; 194 in intensive care7,536 patients recoveredThe same patterns for the data remain. Health care workers account for 1,379 cases and 472 deaths were of people who lived in long-term care or assisted-living facilities, the Health Department reported Monday.
Minnesota counties want the state to do better on contact tracing. Several county-level public health representatives surveyed by MPR News said they're frustrated with the state's slow start on case investigation and contact tracing, despite top-ranking health officials saying they'd be crucial to containing the coronavirus. The Health Department says it hopes to have 460 people making calls to trace cases by week's end. However, with Minnesota's population, some estimates show that Minnesota could need some 30,000 contact tracers to handle COVID-19.
If you want to know some good reasons that "Plandemic" is a bad, inaccurate documentary, NPR did a deep dive. Have a read if you're inclined to appreciate good information.
Before we go, a dose of sweetness. Emilia Mettenbrink, a violinist for the Minnesota Opera, has been putting on balcony concerts from her home in St. Paul. “I love playing for people,” said Mettenbrink. “And I wanted to share something — some emotion, some piece of myself — with others in this time when we can't really share [with] each other as much as we might want to.” And if you don't live in St. Paul, we have some video of it.
— Cody Nelson, MPR News | @codyleenelson |
