Welcome to an above-zero Thursday, Minnesota! Heads up, drivers. Flurries and slick road conditions may slow down your commute today. It'll be mostly cloudy with a chance of a dusting across the state Thursday. Highs today will be in the lower teens (above zero!). Find the latest on Updraft. A Ramsey County program provides a warm, safe place for almost 500 homeless people to survive the cold weather and pandemic. The county has leased two hotels through summer to add extra space for homeless residents during COVID-19 to help address social distancing requirements that limit shelters to half capacity. Colleen Stadt is among the 125 people staying at a Best Western hotel in St. Paul via the county program. “It brings you up,” says the 60-year-old. “It makes a lot of difference.” With vaccinations ramping up and variants spreading, where are we at with COVID-19? At 9 a.m., U of M's Michael Osterholm discusses the question on MPR News. About 1.67 million COVID-19 shots are being administered to Americans daily but scientists worry that the vaccine could be less effective against some mutations and that infection rates might rise again if one of these variants becomes the dominant strain. This morning, host Kerri Miller will speak with Osterholm about the emergence of virus variants and what they will mean for the country’s vaccination efforts. Minnesota now has fewer than 7,000 active, known COVID-19 cases as it approaches 1 million vaccinations. The vaccination pace, however, seems unable to take off after falling and then flattening following a surge late last month. At the current rate, it would take until October to vaccinate 80 percent of adults in Minnesota. Here are Minnesota’s latest COVID-19 statistics: - 6,390 deaths (10 new)
- 475,379 positive cases (783 new), 462,502 off isolation (97 percent)
- 7 million tests, 3.4 million Minnesotans tested (about 59 percent of the population)
- 12.5 percent of Minnesotans vaccinated with at least one dose
Millions in Texas are now facing water shortage on top of power outages after a winter storm. As of Wednesday afternoon, nearly 3.4 million customers around the U.S. were still without electricity, and some also lost water service. Texas officials ordered 7 million people to boil tap water before drinking it following days of record low temperatures that damaged infrastructure and froze pipes. A year into the pandemic, U.S. sees "a huge decline" in life expectancy, most since World War II, Life expectancy in the U.S. dropped a staggering one year during the first half of 2020. People of color suffered the biggest impact, with Black Americans losing nearly three years and Hispanics, nearly two years, according to preliminary data from the CDC. Starting Monday, Minnesota's middle and high schools may resume in-person learning; by early March, all schools should have in-person classes as an option. That's according to Gov. Tim Walz's plan he announced yesterday to bring students back to the state's secondary schools. While all Minnesota districts and charter schools are expected offer some form of in-person instruction by March 8, distance learning options will be available for students uncomfortable about returning. Find everything you should know about the updated Safe Learning plan here. 🎧 Tune in to stay informed and connected. Here's what's coming up on MPR News today. — Jiwon Choi, MPR News | Find me on Twitter @ChoiGEE1 | 
