Good morning, Minnesota!

Tuesday starts off with freezing fog again in most of Minnesota. Parts of the state may see a wintry mix of some freezing rain and light snow tonight into Wednesday. Highs today will be around 30 across Minnesota. Get the latest on the Updraft weather blog. 

After more than a month of banning indoor drinking and dining, Gov. Tim Walz plans to loosen restrictions on restaurants, bars and other venues.

He'll announce his next steps in Minnesota's response to COVID-19 during a live address Wednesday afternoon, a Walz spokesperson said Monday evening. His latest order from mid-December is expiring Sunday night. We'll carry the governor's announcement live on MPRnews.org tomorrow. 

By the end of this month, all front-line health care workers and most nursing-home residents in the state will get their first doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

That's according to the state's top health official, Commissioner Jan Malcolm who said on Monday that Minnesota has received enough vaccines to inoculate all health workers and most long-term care residents designated in the first phase of the state's vaccination plan. As of Monday, the state has administered 78,402 vaccinations. 

As most Minnesotans patiently wait for their turns to get shots, the state's top infectious disease expert says the pace so far has actually been good.

In her interview on NPR yesterday, Kris Ehresmann, with Minnesota's Health Department, said she thinks the state's vaccination process will happen at a much faster pace as more doses arrive in the state. Minnesota has administered about 39 percent of the vaccine doses it has received. 

Is the year-end peak in COVID-19 numbers really behind us? Maybe, but we need to wait a bit more for some clarity in the data.

Case numbers have been mostly stable, although Monday marks a notable upturn. That said, state data show unusual deviations in other areas, like the percent of positive tests. That’s often a sign of data anomalies that can be linked to holiday reporting schedules. 

• 5,443 deaths (13 newly reported)
• 423,688 positive cases (3,148 newly reported), 405,556 off isolation (96 percent)
• 5.7 million tests, 3 million people tested (about 61 percent of the population)
• 11 percent seven-day positive test rate (officials find 5 percent concerning)

In its preliminary investigation report of the fatal police shooting of Dolal Idd, the Minnesota BCA says the victim fired first before officers returned fire. Three MPD officers involved in the shooting have been named.

All three officers have been placed on standard administrative leave, the BCA said Monday. The agency also said investigators found a handgun and a MAC-10 assault-style handgun in Idd's car. According to a search warrant application, also made public Monday, Minneapolis police's Community Response Team was using a confidential informant to buy a “Mac-10 high capacity pistol” from Idd before officers fatally shot him outside a south Minneapolis gas station last week. 

It's Georgia run-off Election Day today.  The state's top election official reiterated that all votes in the November presidential election were counted and all votes in today's runoff will be, debunking President Donald Trump's false claims around the election results. "Do not self-suppress your own vote," said Gabriel Sterling, the state's voting system implementation manager. In a pair of runoff elections today, Georgia voters will decide the balance of power in Congress, which will help determine President-elect Joe Biden’s capacity to enact what may be the most progressive governing agenda in generations.

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