Daunte Wright's family thanks supporters on eve of trial

Nov. 29, 2021

State health officials say they are tracking a new variant of coronavirus called omicron that was first identified last week by researchers in South Africa. State Infectious Disease Director Kris Ehresmann says no cases have so far been detected in Minnesota or the United States.

"But given its international spread and its reported transmissibility, we expect that there will be cases found both in the U.S. and likely in Minnesota," she said.

Ehresmann said the state public health lab is preparing to be able to test for the variant and that Minnesota has among the strongest genomic sequencing and variant surveillance systems in the U.S.

Minnesota is back at the top of the nation’s rankings for new COVID cases per capita, and school leaders say they’re making plans in case they need to move to distance learning in coming weeks.