| Kathryn Styer Martinez | MPR News file
Nov. 12, 2020 Bracing for more bad days, broken records in Minnesota | |
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Good morning, here's what you need to know to start your Thursday. Expect mostly cloudy skies with a chance of snow showers, mainly in the southern half of the state. Accumulation of about 1 inch or less. Highs in the 20s in northwest of the state to 30s in the southeast. More on Updraft
Minnesota’s dealt with a lot of hard COVID-19 days the past two months, but Wednesday felt like the worst so far.
The Health Department reported 56 more COVID-19 deaths, shattering the pandemic’s previous single-day record of 36, which happened Friday. Wednesday’s awful number put Minnesota’s seven-day trend above 30 deaths a day for the first time in the pandemic.
Minnesota public health leaders for weeks have warned the state’s skyrocketing COVID-19 caseload would bring more hospitalizations — and deaths. Those warnings are coming to pass.
Now, Gov. Tim Walz and other officials are bracing Minnesotans to expect more grim milestones.
Here are Minnesota’s current COVID-19 statistics:
2,754 deaths (56 new)194,570 positive cases (4,900 new), 157,164 off isolation3.2 million tests, 2 million people tested (about 36 percent of the population)15.6 percent seven-day positive test rate (officials find 5 percent concerning) "This is just inevitable if we do not change our behaviors and take some mitigation efforts, this will continue to spike,” a frustrated Walz said Wednesday, a day after he tightened restrictions on late-night social life to stem the spread of the disease.
Throughout November, MPR News is featuring Indigenous Minnesotans making history to celebrate Native American Heritage Month.
Maggie Lorenz, 37, spent a significant part of her childhood exploring the green spaces in east St. Paul with family members. Now as the head of Lower Phalen Creek Project and the director of the Wakan Tipi Center, Lorenz is reconnecting with those parks and natural places she described as “magical.” Read her interview here.
When Aric Putnam went to bed on Election Day last week, he fell asleep thinking he'd lost a hard-fought battle to represent St. Cloud and some of its suburbs in the Minnesota state Senate. Putnam, a DFLer, was trailing the incumbent, Republican Jerry Relph, by more than a thousand votes. Putnam spent all of Wednesday assuming he'd lost — until that night, when everything changed.
"I got a text from a friend at 7:30 at night that said, 'Dude, you're winning,’" Putnam recalled.
That's because county elections officials had just finished counting mail-in ballots, and updated the total count. Suddenly, Putnam was leading Relph by about 300 votes.
The roller coaster ride was more disappointing for Relph, a retired lawyer seeking his second term in the Senate.
"Frankly, I felt like I dropped through a wormhole and I'm in an alternate universe,” Relph said. The results aren't final yet. Relph said he's still considering whether to request a recount.
🎧 Tune in and stay informed.Here's what's coming up on MPR News today.
-- Matt Mikus, MPR News ( @mikusmatt) |
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