| Evan Frost | MPR News fileSept. 25, 2020 COVID-19 cases already closing some Minnesota school buildings | |
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Good morning. Partly cloudy skies with patchy fog in the morning Friday. Partly sunny with highs in the lower 70s to lower 80s, except in the 60s near Lake Superior. More on Updraft
Just three weeks into the start of the academic year, COVID-19 is already changing learning scenarios for Minnesota students, teachers and schools. District administrators say further changes are not a matter of “if,” but “when.”
More than 350 of the more than 2,000 schools across the state have already had an instance of at least one student or staff member contract the virus. In some instances, there have been multiple cases at those schools.
But in many cases, virus transmission is not taking place inside of school buildings.
Most of the data used to understand the COVID-19 pandemic in Minnesota went the wrong way this week.The number of active, confirmed COVID-19 cases hit pandemic highs on Thursday.
The Health Department tweaked the way it reported on hospitalizations and intensive care patients due to COVID-19, moving from a daily, net bed count to reporting the number of new admissions to hospitals and intensive care units each day.
The numbers show admissions rising, especially among patients that don’t need intensive care.
Here are Minnesota’s current COVID-19 statistics:
1,988 deaths93,012 positive cases, 83,862 off isolation1,873,867 tests, 1,336,851 people testedThe legislative contests in many parts of Minnesota have a familiar ring this year. There are dozens of rematches for House and Senate seats across the state, with undeterred challengers seeking a different outcome from the last time they ran.
Here are some key legislative races to watch.
The sudden death of the Legal Marijuana Now Party candidate means voters in Minnesota’s south-suburban 2nd Congressional District won’t elect a new member of Congress on Nov. 3 as scheduled. Instead, the seat will be filled in a Feb. 9 special election.
Voters in the district will still cast ballots for president and other offices in the November election.
Though an unlikely situation, MPR News reporter David H. Montgomery reports on how this vacant seat could have unexpected consequences in the event of a disputed presidential election.
An invasive vine not reported in North America for more than 60 years turned up this summer in a small central Minnesota city — a discovery that has local and state officials puzzled as they work to eradicate the plants.
~Matt Mikus, MPR News @mikusmatt |
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