Good morning and welcome to the week. It's another day of coronavirus news. For daily updates, subscribe to the Minnesota Today podcasts. Here’s your Digest:
A shelter-in-place order for Minnesota could be issued as soon as Monday.
Gov. Tim Walz said last week he was strongly considering the step to arrest the spread of COVID-19 in the state. He has been consulting with officials about what a mandate to further restrict public movement would look like.
Walz will appear at the daily Minnesota Department of Health update scheduled for 2 p.m.
Health officials have confirmed 169 cases of COVID-19 in the state, but cautioned that that the actual number of cases is likely 10 times that amount.
"Tenfold sounds like, 'Wow, that's a lot' — but it could be as high as 100-fold,” Kris Ehresmann, director for infectious diseases at the Health Department, said Saturday. “I think the bottom line is that there is a lot of COVID-19 circulating in Minnesota and that's why it's so important that people take the community mitigation measures seriously.”
Minnesota had its first confirmed coronavirus-related death over the weekend and five patients were hospitalized in intensive care as of Sunday as COVID-19 continued spreading among communities across the state.
In addition to the continued pleas for people to practice social distancing and stay home as much as possible, Ehresmann noted two key issues in a media briefing Sunday: - Because many dental offices are closed, she said emergency rooms across the state are seeing more people coming in with dental emergencies. She called on Minnesota residents to reach out to their dentist in those cases, so they don’t take up space in ERs. She also asked dentists to make accommodations to provide emergency care.
- Ehresmann said there is a “desperate need” for blood donations in Minnesota, with many of the usual donation options (workplace blood drives, etc.) no longer available. She said donating blood is safe, and blood banks have taken steps to ensure social distancing.
The state health lab had processed 4,680 tests as of Sunday, and Mayo Clinic and other labs have processed additional tests. Mayo helped the state work through a backlog of 800 samples, Ehresmann said, and she believes Minnesota can keep its pace on testing priority patients in the coming days.
A concerning turn in the outbreak: COVID-19 is showing up in long-term care facilities and among health workers — who account for about 1 in 5 confirmed infections.
The state Health Department said at least one COVID-19 is from an assisted living situation, where there can be a high population of elderly and potentially vulnerable residents. They did not identify the facility.
Ehresmann said the coronavirus may also be moving through the health care system.
"We have seen some transmission in the health care setting, but the majority were based on travel,” she said. “We have 34 situations in which health care workers have been infected."
-- Cody Nelson, MPR News | 
