New guidance on reopening secondary schools coming today

Good morning. Here's what you need to know to start your Wednesday.

The coldest days of the season are finally behind us. Now we are due for a temperature rebound. Highs today will range from 5 to 15 degrees across the state. There's a chance of flurries for much of Minnesota, which may bring up to an inch of snow in some areas including the Twin Cities. Find more on the Updraft weather blog.

At noon today, Gov. Tim Walz will detail the next steps in reopening Minnesota's secondary schools for in-person learning.

The latest guidance from the CDC says schools are recommended to look at regional COVID-19 spread and implement multiple safety measures like masking, social distancing and ventilation when planning to resuming in-person classes. The federal guidelines, though, don't mandate schools to reopen. Walz said last week that while he wants all students back in classrooms as soon as possible, he wouldn't set a date on their return to in-person classes.

Watch or listen to the governor's announcement today on MPR News.

So is it really safe for kids to return to school? Let us breakdown the new CDC guidelines.

At 9 a.m. today, host Kerri Miller will talk with the superintendent of the North St Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale district about what she’s seeing and hearing in the district and with one of the nation’s leading epidemiologists. Together, they'll have a close look at the CDC guidance to try to answer the question: Is this the time for kids to return to classrooms?

With only two more deaths and fewer than 500 new cases reported yesterday, the bright picture in the pandemic continues in Minnesota.

Known, active COVID-19 cases slipped below 7,000 Tuesday -- for the first time since late September. The death count also remained as low as two for two days in a row. Tuesday also marked the first time the state hit its goal of administering 90 percent of available vaccines within three days of reaching providers.

During the pandemic, a lot more older Minnesotans have sought help from food shelves, especially in rural counties.

As the pandemic bore down on the state, the number of older adults seeking food assistance swelled across Minnesota. The state’s largest increases in food shelf use over the last year happened in the metro area. But in some rural places, there has been a more than fivefold increase in visits among people age 65 and older.

The record-breaking cold weather across the U.S. has left millions without power and at least 20 dead.

The record winter storm carried heavy snow and freezing rain into New England and the Deep South and left behind painfully low temperatures. In all, at least 20 deaths were reported including car crashes and carbon monoxide poisoning. The weather also threatened to affect the nation's COVID-19 vaccination effort.

And that storm is affecting us in Minnesota, too.

Parts of western Minnesota face the possibility of rolling blackouts this week because of the severe winter weather that hit Texas and other parts of the southwestern U.S. In Moorhead, about 9,800 households were impacted by the rolling power outages for a half hour Tuesday morning. Blackouts are possible again in the area from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. today.

🎧 Tune in to stay informed and connected. Here's what's coming up on MPR News today.

— Jiwon Choi, MPR News | Find me on Twitter @ChoiGEE1