The Minnesota Department of Health reported 1,184 new cases of COVID-19 today and 10 new COVID deaths, bringing the state’s case total to 101,366 and the death toll to 2,059.
Of those deaths, 1,472 were residents of long-term care or assisted living facilities. Of those cases, 10,603 were health care workers.
Over 2.086 million COVID tests have been completed so far, with about 32,000 tests completed yesterday, Oct. 1.
To date, 90,492 COVID patients have been released from isolation.
MDH reported nine new COVID cases in Beltrami County today, bringing the county’s cumulative total to 499 with five deaths.
Beltrami Public Health officials recently completed a mass, no-barriers testing event this week. They say they’ll have the data, such as positivity rate, available by early next week.
MDH also reported two new cases in Cass County, for a total of 206 cases and four deaths; one new case in Clearwater County, total of 35; seven new cases in Hubbard County, total of 144 with one death; one new case in Lake of the Woods County, total of 25 cases and one death; and six new cases in Roseau County, total of 139 cases.
Positive cases of COVID-19 in Itasca County still climb during a week that now includes a second area death, a man in his 80s. As of 8 a.m. on Oct. 2, 94 more cases have been confirmed over the past eight days, bringing the county’s cumulative case total to 396 and deaths to 16. These cases include 15 positives identified through drive-through testing on Sept. 23.
“To the family and friends of the gentleman lost this week in our community to COVID, our deep condolences,” said Kelly Chandler, department manager, Itasca County Public Health. “And to our neighbors in the hospitals right now, those on ventilators and struggling to recover from this disease, we have you in our thoughts and prayers.”
As of Oct. 2, 79 Itasca County residents are in isolation, including those in hospitals, due to COVID.
Under the Safe Learning Plan, school districts are required to monitor biweekly case rate information, as some districts may need to transition to more restrictive learning models depending on how many cases per 10,000 people are reported over a two-week period.
For counties with case rates of less than 10, in-person learning is recommended for all students; for case rates of 10 to less than 20, in-person learning for elementary students and hybrid learning for middle and high schoolers; for case rates of 20 to less than 30, hybrid learning for all students; for case rates of 30 to less than 50, hybrid learning for elementary students and distance learning for secondary; and for case rates of more than 50, distance learning is recommended for all students.
For the two-week period ending Sept. 19, counties in north-central Minnesota that saw case rate increases include:
- Beltrami County, from 6.94 to 10.19
- Cass County, from 3.45 to 11.72
- Hubbard County, from 6.71 to 19.65
- Itasca County, 11.06 to 16.15
- Koochiching County, 5.54 to 17.40
- Mahnomen County, 10.90 to 12.71
- Roseau County, from 20.70 to 21.99
Only two counties in the area saw case rate decreases, Clearwater County (from 5.67 to 4.54) and Lake of the Woods County (from 23.63 to 13.13).
