July 24, 2020
Who brought the sauna to Minnesota? This weekend, you may want to stay indoors given the weather conditions, unless you can withstand the heat. There’s an excessive heat warning in effect for the metro area until Saturday afternoon, and highs tomorrow will be in the 80s to the 90s across Minnesota. Sunday highs are slightly lower, in the upper 70s to the upper 80s, but heat indices in southern Minnesota will remain high around 97 degrees. Showers and thunderstorms are possible overnight Friday night for parts of Minnesota, and would expand across the state by Saturday evening. More on the latest Updraft weather blog. Trash burned, unused baits thrown into water, living trees cut down -- BWCA struggles with a surge of visitors this summer. As the pandemic restricts trips and people are asked to stay closer to home, many Minnesotans are heading to the Boundary Waters for their summer fun. The increase in traffic has brought along problems: "Garbage left at sites, burning garbage, fish guts and that kind of stuff, not being taken care of. Having campfires not in the grate." Officials ask: Leave no trace after your visit. The virus may stay “with us forever” -- without a vaccine. While President Trump reiterated his belief that the virus will soon burn itself out, scientists are increasingly of the view that it will not disappear. And until there is an effective vaccine in widespread use, levels of immunity will never be high enough to achieve what's called herd immunity, these researchers say. "I think it's going to be with us probably forever at this point," says Devi Sridhar, a professor of global public health at the University of Edinburgh. After midnight, children over age 5 must wear a mask. How are you going to convince your kids to have a mask on? That was the topic of today’s MPR News with Angela Davis, where host Angela talked about the state’s new mask mandate and how it affects kids with a pediatrician. She also asked the Children's Minnesota doctor for tips on teaching children about social distancing and talking to them about the seriousness of COVID-19. Want to know more about the state’s mask requirement? Here are answers to some key questions about the mandate. Another day of over 700 new cases; total case count nears 50K in Minnesota. State health officials also reported 5 more deaths from COVID-19, and 278 Minnesotans are currently hospitalized of the disease. They also warned of a credit card scam where someone received a call claiming to be a health investigator following up on a possible COVID-19 exposure — but then asking for a credit card number so that a testing kit could be sent. While they may call you for contact tracing, “we will never ask for credit card information,” officials said. — Jiwon Choi, MPR News | @ChoiGEE1 | 