| Photo by Evan Frost | MPR News
May 15, 2020
State bears down on testing at nursing homes | |
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Good morning. We've made it to yet another weekend. Here's the latest news.
Mostly sunny until the evening. Twin Cities highs in the lower 70s with 5 to 10 mph winds. Statewide, highs from the mid-60s to lower 70s. The lowest lows are in the northeast at night with temps dropping to the upper 30s. More on Updraft. | Forecast
Minnesota National Guard health personnel and medics are starting rapid testing of all staff and residents at long-term care facilities. They began yesterday with testing at 20 facilities.
Health officials have said they'll do facility-wide testing when a coronavirus case is confirmed in a nursing home or similar setting. “I think that it's fair to say that these first two days or three days are going to be kind of piloting this idea of whole house testing of our residents and our staff, and we will learn as we go,” said Gayle Kvenvold, president and CEO of LeadingAge Minnesota, an association of nursing homes and assisted living facilities in the state. “This is a positive development and we're really pleased to see this kind of rapid deployment on testing."
Just over 80 percent of COVID-19 deaths were people living in long-term care facilities. As of Thursday, that was 537 deaths in total. Asymptomatic carriers of the disease are the theory for why COVID-19 has been difficult to contain in nursing homes.
Here are the latest coronavirus statistics:
13,435 confirmed cases via 128,752 tests633 deaths1,915 cases requiring hospitalization498 people remain hospitalized; 203 in intensive care9,136 patients recoveredEven with a stay-home order lasted until fall, 20,000 more Minnesotans would die from COVID-19. That's according to the latest modeling from the state, which also found little benefit from extending the governor's order.
Overall, the goal of quarantine is to delay COVID-19's peak, not prevent it. “The most effect from our mitigation strategy is to push the curve to the right, with some impact on full epidemic mortality, as well,” said Stefan Gildemeister, the state’s health economist.
Modeling also found that social distancing wasn't working as well as leaders hoped. Cellphone data showed that Minnesotans have gotten worse at following the safety practice, going out and about more often.
One scenario that changed the curve: staying home deep into the summer or fall. “If I was to go the very safest route, according to the model, that would be September,” Gov. Tim Walz said Wednesday evening. “But I would argue there's another side of the ledger, that we would have not just economic issues sheltering in place … 'til September, we would have serious health issues.”
About 50,000 Minnesotans are having an extra hard time with unemployment benefits. That's how many unemployment applications have been deemed complex or ineligible for benefits. Contract workers or self-employed people tend to be those facing issues with getting their benefits.
— Cody Nelson , MPR News | @codyleenelson |
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