Good morning. Looks like sunny skies for Friday. We'll see highs in the upper 60s to mid-70s to the north, to upper 70s to mid 80s in southern Minnesota. Updraft The newest numbers follow a stretch of more than a week when average new daily case counts topped 1,000. Separately Thursday, the state loosened some virus-related restrictions on restaurants and other public gathering places.
The surge came — and now the hospitalizations appear to be following.
The Health Department on Thursday reported the second-highest number of new COVID-19 hospital admissions in a single day in the pandemic, suggesting that some of the recent surge in newly confirmed cases is surfacing now in hospital beds.
The agency confirmed 98 new hospital admissions, the highest total since May. Average hospitalizations are at their highest point since June. There were 22 newly reported intensive care admissions.
Minnesota’s current COVID-19 statistics:
- 2,107 deaths
- 107,922 positive cases, 97,254 off isolation
- 2,224,194 tests, 1,526,559 people tested
- 5 percent seven-day average positive test rate
Minnesota lawmakers could vote on a construction borrowing bill next week after months of haggling over one, a key lawmaker said Thursday.
Senate Capital Investment Committee Chair David Senjem said a $1.365 billion draft plan is almost ready for proofreading and presentation to the legislative caucuses.
“The last chance in some number of months, perhaps a couple of years, that we can do a significant infrastructure bill given obviously the pending budget deficit,” Senjem said. “We will never be able to come back next year and do a bonding bill of this size.”
Minneapolis police chief Medaria Arradondo presented a 2021 budget plan Thursday that eliminates dozens of unfilled positions but also invests in a highly touted program that pairs officers with mental health professionals.
Speaking to the city council’s budget committee, Arradondo laid out a plan to account for a more than 7 percent cut included in Mayor Jacob Frey’s proposed 2021 budget. Frey has said cuts are necessary to make up for lost revenues due to the pandemic and the unrest which followed the police killing of George Floyd in May.
-- Matt Mikus, MPR News @mikusmatt | 
