| Paul Middlestaedt for MPR News
Nov. 16, 2020 More than 16,000 new COVID-19 cases over the weekend | |
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Good morning, welcome to the start of a new week. Partly sunny skies are expected, with light snow showers in northern Minnesota. Highs are in the mid 20s to lower 30s in the north, upper 30s in the Twin Cities, and 40s in southern Minnesota. Find out more from Updraft.
Minnesota reported more than 16,000 new COVID-19 cases over the weekend — the two largest daily increases on record — as rolling seven-day averages for COVID hospital admissions and deaths in the state remained at all-time highs.
The state saw a record 8,703 new cases in Saturday’s report from Minnesota health officials, and another 7,559 cases on Sunday. There were 66 more COVID-related deaths in Minnesota reported over the weekend.
Two weekends ago, the state saw 5,238 total cases and 38 deaths. Four weekends ago, it was 3,436 cases and 22 deaths.
Here are Minnesota’s current COVID-19 statistics:
2,905 deaths (31 new)223,581 positive cases (7,559 new); 172,873 off isolationMore than 3.4 million tests; more than 2.1 million people tested14.8 percent seven-day positive test rate (officials find 5 percent concerning)As COVID-19 patients flood their hallways, hospitals are shifting and shuffling employees and space to accommodate a growing number of patients. It’s a strategy that carries risks for patients and employees.
For weeks, public health officials have warned that, while additional space and supplies to treat COVID-19 patients are available, staff is not. That leaves individual hospitals and health care systems to an exhausting, daily game of staffing chess to keep up with the demand for care, as more and more COVID-19 patients flood the state’s intensive care units and hospital floors.
At this critical juncture, this logistical gymnastics is necessary, but it also threatens to burn out the system’s already limited staff.
And it's not just Minnesota. Some nurses in North Dakota fear their difficult work amid the pandemic is about to get even harder now that Gov. Doug Burgum has allowed the state's beleaguered hospitals to use infected but asymptomatic workers to treat COVID-19 patients.
“It’s going to make you question every time you want to sit down and grab a five-minute snack with one of your co-workers,” said Adam Johnston, who is the president of the state’s Emergency Nurses Association. “You’re always going to think, ‘Am I 6 feet away from them? Am I safe? Am I not?’”
The Republican majority leader of the Minnesota Senate, Sen. Paul Gazelka, has tested positive for COVID-19, and is facing calls from the DFL minority to resign his leadership post over his handling of a COVID outbreak affecting the GOP caucus.
Gazelka, 61, is currently traveling in Florida, where he flew last Monday. He said he developed symptoms at some time that day. A spokesperson said Gazelka wasn’t displaying symptoms when he went to Florida.
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-- Matt Mikus, MPR News (@mikusmatt ) |
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