Area counties have slight rise in new COVID-19 cases
Apr. 14—MANKATO — South-central Minnesota counties had a slight rise in newly confirmed COVID-19 cases Wednesday.
The nine counties combined for 73 confirmed cases, up from 66 on Tuesday, according to the Minnesota Department of Health.
There were no new COVID-19 deaths confirmed in the south-central region, but there were 16 statewide. Minnesota's pandemic death toll rose to 6,978.
Wednesday's 73 new cases in area counties were about average so far for April. Most days in April have had at least 70 new cases, which puts it on track to be the first month since December with such consistently high daily upticks.
Blue Earth County accounted for 26 of the 73 new cases. Nicollet County had the next most with 14.
All nine area counties had at least two new cases. The full list of new cases by county includes:
* Blue Earth County — 26
* Nicollet County — 14
* Le Sueur County — 7
* Waseca County — 7
* Sibley County — 6
* Brown County — 5
* Martin County — 3
* Watonwan County — 3
* Faribault County — 2
Statewide, Minnesota's vaccination rate remains near a record high, with around 37,000 new first doses being administered per day. But the number of new doses shipped into the state has fallen sharply recently — especially fewer doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
On Tuesday, state officials followed the lead of the federal Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which jointly recommended a pause in administering the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine while they investigate extremely rare reports of blood clots. Minnesota will receive no new J&J doses next week, a sharp drop from the 80,000 it received last week.
Gov. Tim Walz, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm all received the J&J vaccine two weeks ago. Walz said Tuesday he anticipates the pause will be relatively short and noted 95% of the state's vaccinations have been Pfizer or Moderna.
Minnesota is on tap to receive about 142,000 new first doses next week — about the same number it received this week. That's enough to vaccinate about 20,000 new people per day, on average.
Before the J&J pause and an earlier factory mishap, officials had been hopeful that a flood of new J&J vaccines would combine with existing Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to drive Minnesota's vaccination rate to a new level.
The newest numbers still suggest the state may reach a hopeful milestone — half of adults with at least one vaccine dose — by the end of this week or early next.
About 33.1% of Minnesota adults are completely vaccinated; 48.3% have received at least one vaccine dose, including about 84.4% of residents age 65 and older, the state health department said Wednesday.
In south-central Minnesota, about 32.3% of residents 16 and older are completely vaccinated. The percentage of residents 16 and older with at least one dose in the region is 46.7%.
As vaccine numbers rise, COVID-19 case counts are trending higher, too. Two weeks ago, the state was averaging about 1,600 new cases per day. Now it's about 2,100.
The number of known, active cases has been trending upward over the past few weeks, with more than 17,000 as of Wednesday's report — marking more than three weeks with active daily counts above 10,000.
Hospitalizations have climbed significantly in the past weeks to levels not seen since January, and deaths tied to the disease are trending up, too. Health officials say coronavirus variants circulating in Minnesota are driving those increases.
The state Wednesday reported 681 people in Minnesota hospitals with COVID-19; 164 needed intensive care, hovering near the highest number of ICU patients since early January.
While still low compared to late November and early December, the rising trend is notable given the worries over the rise of the highly contagious U.K. COVID-19 variant.
To date, the state has confirmed at least 1,600 cases of the U.K. strain. State epidemiologist Dr. Ruth Lynfield said last week that the variant is linked to five deaths here and likely responsible for the majority of the spread happening now.
The state has recorded 547,101 total confirmed or probable cases so far in the pandemic, including 1,715 posted Wednesday. About 95% of Minnesotans known to be infected with COVID-19 in the pandemic have recovered to the point where they no longer need to be isolated.
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