Live updates: Concerns rise about Minnesota long-term care as COVID-19 cases, deaths break daily records

ST PAUL, Minn. — Friday, Nov. 6 

• Minnesota exceeds previous daily case high by nearly 1,500
• ICU use nearing capacity in Minnesota
• AstraZeneca expects to deliver COVID-19 vaccine trial data by year’s end

Minnesota  Department of Health (MDH) Commissioner Jan Malcolm spoke on a media briefing Friday after the state reported new daily highs in both COVID-19 cases and deaths.

Malcolm said currently, 986 people are hospitalized due to COVID-19 across the state, 56 more than the previous day. Two hundred and twelve of those people are in the ICU.

Malcolm said with the surge in cases, MDH is focusing on protecting people in long-term care and assisted living. In early May, she said, the state “stepped up” its work in this regard with a five-point plan to make facilities safer and to make outbreaks “more of an exception than the norm.”

MDH’s Health Regulation Director Michelle Larson gave an update on how her division has been tackling each point of the five-point plan to help support long-term care facilities.

Expand COVID-19 testing for residents and workers. Larson said the department has developed a process for facilities to request testing. Eight contracted swabbing teams operate across the state, and since April more than 750 facilities have had testing coordinated through the State Emergency Operations Center.

• Provide testing support and troubleshooting. Larson said they’ve created streamlined processes to get testing resources and support to facilities across the state, and started a nurse triage line that provides test results and advises facilities on what the next steps should be.
• Get personal protective equipment (PPE) to facilities. MDH has pushed out PPE including gowns, face masks and gloves to facilities since spring, according to Larson.
• Ensure adequate staffing. Larson said MDH has created a crisis staff manager team to address issues and connect facilities to staffing resources. MDH also helped facilities pre-plan for a staffing crisis. They’ve also helped to “grow the staffing pool” by reaching out with a media campaign to people who are currently unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Leverage partnerships. Larson said that MDH has been working with health care systems, hospitals, emergency medical services and local public health to establish partnerships that can help facilities with staffing, connections, consultation and more.

“Even the best floodwalls can fail if the waters rise high enough,” Malcolm said.

She said while the work MDH is doing to protect long-term care facilities is strong, officials are concerned about the effects of rising case rates.

“As cases continue to rise, the residents and the staff in these facilities are at serious risk, even as these facilities continue to take aggressive actions,” Malcolm said. “Their good work cannot completely insulate residents from the high rates of transmission in the communities surrounding them.”

Malcolm said the progress made in long-term care is at risk of being undone, as most outbreaks at facilities start with a case that comes in from the community.

Annette Greely, president of Jones-Harrison Residence in Minneapolis, said testing has helped her facilities better control COVID spread. She said they are in a continual state of procuring more PPE.

Greely said testing, PPE and infection control are their tactics for keeping COVID-19 at bay this winter.

“The only other tactic we need is the support of the citizens of Minnesota,” she said, to take measures to curb the spread of the virus.

Greely said her industry is still struggling with a workforce shortage, and estimated there are still about 10,000 jobs available in long-term care and assisted living. She encouraged anyone who is looking for work to consider working with seniors.

“You will actually make a difference in someone’s life,” she said.

Malcolm said ICU capacity in the Twin Cities metro is increasingly limited, and is slightly better in greater Minnesota. “Things are absolutely getting tighter in Minnesota,” she said. A week ago there were 36 available beds and this week that number dipped to 17 at one point and fluctuated to the low 20s, she said. It’s important to consider that staffed beds are needed, Malcolm said, and not just “theoretical beds.”

“Hospitals have been running very full all summer and fall with non-COVID patients,” Malcolm said. “Now the added COVID-19 growth in cases is putting our hospitals near the top of their capacity and staffing is becoming an increasing problem.”

Malcolm said she hopes the rapid increases in cases will help people who have become “numb” to the impacts of COVID-19 to take it more seriously and follow public health guidance.

“It’s literally thousands and thousands of small decisions happening all over Minnesota that are the issue here,” Malcolm said.

MDH Infectious Disease Division Director Kris Ehresmann said her message for Minnesotans is this: “You have got to make changes. Your choices are impacting the capacity of our health care system to serve you and the other people who need it.”

Malcolm said that the potential of dialing back and putting increased restrictions in place in Minnesota is “certainly an ongoing discussion.”

“Despite our growth in testing capacity, we still have more demand,” Malcolm said. She said part of their goal is to get the tests closer to people, because there is capacity that’s not being used. The MDH efforts in this area include saliva testing centers and pop-up community testing.

But Malcolm also said that as Dr. Birx of the White House Coronavirus Task Force pointed out when she visited Minnesota, testing capacity needs to be built up even further in order to do proactive screening, looking for people who are asymptomatic and positive for COVID-19 “to get upstream of this.”

Numbers released by the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) Friday continue a trend that has state officials extremely concerned, with new COVID cases jumping to a record 5,454. That’s nearly 1,500 more than the single-day record established Thursday. 

Testing volume is high with 45,769 tests processed (44,749 PCR, 1,020 antigen) in private and state labs, and the case numbers are jarring, but not unexpected. MDH Commissioner Jan Malcolm said Wednesday that Minnesotans can expect to see case numbers above 4,000 as community transmission moves the virus through the state.

Deaths reported Friday mark another single-day high, with 36 Minnesotans losing their lives to the coronavirus. That brings the total fatalities in the state to 2,591. Of those deaths 1,800, or 69% of them, are tied to long-term care or assisted living settings. 

Total hospitalizations from the virus are now at 11,193 since the onset of the pandemic, with 2,864 of those patients requiring care in the ICU. MDH says 139,190 people who at one time tested positive for COVID-19 have recovered to the point they no longer require isolation. 

Those ages 20 to 24 make up the state’s largest group of cases by a significant margin, 20,250 with one death. People 25 to 29 account for 16,417 cases and three deaths, followed by 30 to 34-year-olds with 14,990 cases and nine deaths. 

Minnesota’s largest grouping of fatalities involves people ages 85 to 89, with 464 deaths in just 2,262 cases. 

Hennepin County reports the most COVID activity in the state with 40,559 cases and 1,016 deaths, followed by Ramsey County with 16,971 cases and 392 fatalities. Dakota County reports 11,938 cases and 144 deaths. 

Cook County in northeastern Minnesota has the least documented COVID activity with 32 cases and zero deaths, followed by Lake of the Woods County with 58 cases and a single death. 

Thursday, Nov. 5

12:15 p.m.

New data from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) shows some level of hybrid or distance learning is now recommended across the entire state for the first time.

Weekly school guidance data released Thursday shows COVID-19 case rates per 10,000 people are high enough for the state to recommend full distance learning in 34 of the state’s 87 counties, the highest number since the state first began providing the data in late summer. 

Another 38 counties fall under the guidance for hybrid learning for elementary schools and distance learning for secondary students, including Hennepin and Ramsey counties in the Twin Cities metro area.

For the first time, there are no counties that fall under state recommendations for full in-person learning.

State officials have emphasized that this case data alone does not automatically determine the learning plan or any changes for a particular county or school district; the data is meant to be used as guidance in each district or school’s decision-making process.

According to the state’s Safe Learning Plan, the county case data leads to five recommended learning models:

• 0-9 cases per 10,000: In-person learning for all students
• 10-19 cases per 10,000: In-person learning for elementary students, hybrid learning for secondary students
• 20-29 cases per 10,000: Hybrid learning for all students
• 30-49 cases per 10,000: Hybrid learning for elementary students, distance learning for secondary students
• 50 or more cases per 10,000: Distance learning for all students

Once again Minnesota has broken its own record for new cases of COVID-19 identified in a single day.

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) reported 3,956 total new cases on Thursday, breaking its own daily record for the third day in a row.

That number is a combination of 3,872 “confirmed” cases via PCR test, and 84 “probable” cases identified with an antigen test.

MDH also reported 25 deaths from COVID in the last 24 hours, bringing Minnesota’s death toll to 2,555.

The new record comes a day after MDH Commissioner Jan Malcolm warned the public that they will continue to see more than 3,000 new cases per day, and should brace for 4,000 daily.

“We are falling behind the rapid spread of this virus,” Malcolm said on Wednesday. “Gathering in a group of people is dangerous right now.” 

MDH reported on Wednesday that the Twin Cities metro is nearing ICU capacity at 98%, and ICUs across the state are 92% full. As of Thursday, 11,016 people have been hospitalized in Minnesota due to COVID since the pandemic began. Of those, 2,839 were in the ICU.

Cases continue to surge in young people ages 20-24, by far the largest group of confirmed cases with 19,700. MDH has warned repeatedly that young people are carrying the virus, often asymptomatically, contributing to the rapid spread in Minnesota. That spread is beginning to reach Minnesota’s long-term care facilities once again, MDH said this week.

KARE 11’s coverage of the coronavirus is rooted in Facts, not Fear. Visit kare11.com/coronavirus for comprehensive coverage, find out what you need to know about the Midwest specifically, learn more about the symptoms, and see what businesses are open as the state slowly lifts restrictions. Have a question? Text it to us at 763-797-7215. And get the latest coronavirus updates sent right to your inbox every morning. Subscribe to the KARE 11 Sunrise newsletter here. Help local families in need: www.kare11.com/give11. 

The state of Minnesota has set up a data portal online at mn.gov/covid19