Good morning. A cold but mostly sunny day is in store for us this Monday. Expect temperatures to range from mid-20s to upper 30s around the state. Find out more from Updraft.
Minnesota health officials reported another 7,219 COVID-19 cases and 40 more deaths on Sunday, on a record volume of more than 67,000 test results. The average numbers of COVID-19 hospital admissions and deaths each day over the past week remain at all-time highs.
But for the second straight day, there was a positive sign elsewhere in the new numbers from the state health department. Looking back over the past week, the average daily number of newly confirmed cases ticked downward again.
Saturday’s drop was the first the state had seen since Oct. 26. Sunday’s drop marked the first time the average dropped by double-digits since Sept. 11.
Those declines have come even as testing volume remains high.
Here are Minnesota’s current COVID-19 statistics:
- 3,241 deaths (40 new)
- 270,157 positive cases (7,219 new); 219,720 off isolation
- 3.8 million tests, 2.3 million people tested (about 40 percent of the population)
- 13.4 percent seven-day positive test rate (officials find 5 percent concerning)
It could be evidence that the state has cleared a peak in the outbreak — but it could also just be a brief blip in the numbers, especially if people go against health experts' pleas to call off Thanksgiving gatherings.
With that in mind, here's a guide to help you navigate a virtual Thanksgiving. It includes tips to keep your video call on track, along with a collection of activities to keep the whole family entertained.
The Centro Hispano clinic is a free monthly clinic housed in a home owned by St. Joseph Catholic church in Waite Park. Patients check in at the kitchen area, get screened for the coronavirus and fill out paperwork. Then they see a doctor in one of the bedrooms.
A nonprofit organization has purchased more than 70,000 acres of northern and central Minnesota forest formerly owned by the paper and lumber giant Potlatch.
Potlatch once owned 330,000 acres across Minnesota, on which it managed and harvested trees for its paper mills. Now called PotlatchDeltic and based in Spokane, Wash., the company sold off most of that land over the past few decades.
This month, The Conservation Fund finalized a deal to purchase the remaining 72,440 acres, scattered over 14 counties, for almost $48 million.
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-- Matt Mikus, MPR News (@mikusmatt) | 
