May 22, 2020
Gray holiday weekend. Showers and storms start sliding along southern Minnesota Friday night. Then, most of the state could see a few scattered showers or storms Saturday, especially in the afternoon. More widespread showers and thunderstorms are possible on Sunday. Highs in the mid-70s on Saturday and lower 80s on Sunday in the Twin Cities. COVID-19 in Minnesota today: No State Fair this year; 33 new deaths. Total confirmed cases rose to 19,005; 534 people are currently hospitalized; 233 are in intensive care. State Fair officials announced the 2020 Great Minnesota Get-Together could not go on because of the potential public health risk -- it’s the first cancellation since the polio epidemic in 1946. In Florida, theme parks got the first green light to reopen. Plans to reopen Legoland and the Universal theme parks are now on the way to the governor’s desk for final approval after local officials OK’d them. Both say employees and guests would undergo temperature checks on arrival and have hand sanitizer dispensers and signs outlining safety requirements at entrances and throughout their parks. Flags at half-staff in memory of 100,000 lives taken by COVID-19 in U.S. President Trump announced that U.S. government buildings, military posts and embassies will fly the flag at half-staff through Memorial Day weekend, in memory of the nearly 100,000 people who have died of COVID-19. The move comes after Democratic leaders in Congress sent a letter to the president requesting the gesture. This nurse with one lung had COVID-19, and other nurses saved her. Tanya Adell-O’Neal, who has asthma and one lung, tested positive for the virus in early April, and had since stayed home, until she couldn’t breathe one night. She could barely speak, but said a few words at the hospital she went to: “I’m a nurse myself.” Crystal Holloway, the nurse assigned to Adell-O’Neal, promised her she’d do everything she could to keep her out of the ICU -- and kept her promise. Read their story on ProPublica. Parting Thoughts: Remembering lives lost to COVID-19. Through conversations with their family members, colleagues and close friends, MPR News is remembering the lives of the people we’ve lost, too soon, to COVID-19. If you'd like to share the story of someone you've lost, please email mmartin@mpr.org. — Jiwon Choi and Sara Porter, MPR News | 