Good morning. Best to plan for snow today. We could get up to 4 or 5 inches, with the heaviest expected in the afternoon. Highs are expected in the mid-30s throughout the state. Stay warm, Minnesotans! Updraft As Minnesota’s COVID-19 numbers continue to go the wrong way, state public health authorities are saying out loud what no one really wants to hear: Rethink your holiday plans.
Many of the state’s outbreaks are being fueled now by the kinds of informal get-togethers with friends and family that multiply during the November and December holidays. Traditional year-end holiday gatherings may simply may be too risky in a pandemic, Jan Malcolm, the state’s health commissioner, said Monday.
Because of that, “it’s a really good time to consider not having the same kinds of gatherings that you would in the past,” Malcolm told reporters, acknowledging the painful reality of that advice.
“The transmission is everywhere, not just one or two sources or one or two kinds of settings. It’s the individual decisions that we’re all making fueling the rate of increase we’re seeing,” Malcolm cautioned. “We need to take this seriously.”
Malcolm’s remarks came hours after her agency reported active, confirmed cases of the disease climbing to record highs in the pandemic.
Here are Minnesota’s current COVID-19 statistics:
2,239 deaths (5 new)124,439 positive cases (1,632 new cases) 109,963 off isolation2,531,998 tests, 1,694,265 people tested5.8 percent seven-day positive test rate COVID-19 forced colleges and universities to make major changes this year in the ways students learn and interact. Many students are taking most or even all of their courses online.
But in central Minnesota, the partner colleges of St. John's University and the College of St. Benedict decided to keep students on campus and in the classroom as much as possible. Instead of taking four or five classes at a time, students switched to block scheduling, in which they're immersed in a single course for almost four weeks.
“It's the same number of hours as a whole semester for the class, but you're just doing one class at a time,” said Richard Ice, the schools’ provost.
The block scheduling cut down on students’ movement on and between both campuses, Ice said. But the shift required a Herculean effort by faculty, and probably wouldn’t have been possible at a larger institution — like the University of Minnesota, for instance — he said. -- Kirsti Marohn, MPR News
Republicans in the Minnesota House and Senate are pledging to lift COVID-19 restrictions on businesses, churches and schoolsif they’re put in charge next year.
With two weeks before Election Day, Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, R-East Gull Lake, and House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt, R-Zimmerman, outlined Monday what they call their “Contract To Open Minnesota.”
Gazelka said he wants schools fully opened across the state, including sports and other extracurricular activities. “We now trust Minnesotans to look at the data, look at the science, follow the CDC guidelines and live their lives in all of these different areas,” Gazelka said. “So, that’s why we have this commitment.”
Democrats who have fought off Republican efforts to scrap the emergency were quick to respond. Sen. Matt Klein, DFL-Mendota Heights, who is also a medical doctor, took to Twitter to criticize the GOP message.
“It’s terrible advice. It’s anti-science, and it’s an insult to everyone who has experienced a loss this year,” Klein said.
President Donald Trump has signed into law a bipartisan bill to create a new three-digit number for mental health emergencies. The Federal Communications Commission had already picked 988 as the number for this hotline and aims to have it up and running by July 2022. The new law paves the way to make that a reality.
"We are thrilled, because this is a game changer," says Robert Gebbia, CEO of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. He and other mental health advocates say this will make it easier for more Americans to access mental health care.
— Matt Mikus, MPR News |
