'Just this year, please don't gather': Health workers plead with Minnesotans

More mild days. Tonight will have mostly cloudy skies, and again a little warmer than average, with lows in the lower 20s north, to mid 30s south. Friday will be partly sunny with highs in the mid 20s to lower 30s north, to 40s south. There might be a little snow on Saturday.

"Please don't gather. Just this year, please don't," health care workers plead with Minnesotans.

Current conditions are “very dire” at Minnesota hospitals, said Dr. Penny Wheeler, CEO of Allina Health. The virus is sickening health care workers — it’s sidelined 800 Allina workers — and the state’s health system is “getting perilously close” to being unable to care for everyone who needs it, she said.

Another day, another record: 72 more Minnesotans lost to COVID-19, Thursday's data show.

The number is now twice the average daily death toll last week, a sign of the rapid growth of serious illness among COVID-19 patients.

With nearly 7,900 new cases reported in the latest data, about 1 in 5 of all the COVID-19 cases ever reported in Minnesota have come in via test results from the last seven days — stretching all the way back to March. Hospitalizations also topped 1,700, now up nearly 1,000 patients since the end of October.

The state Supreme Court is putting a 60-day pause on jury trials. Current trials can wrap up, but new panels won’t hear cases at least until next year.