Good morning, Minnesota! We'll have another mild but gray day today. It'll be mostly cloudy throughout Tuesday, with highs near 30 up north and in the 40s in southern Minnesota. While not as windy as yesterday, Tuesday stays breezy, with a dusting of snow across northern Minnesota. Find the latest forecast on Updraft. Wednesday snow update: Most of the state will likely see snow; Twin Cities' snow news is still a question mark. The heaviest snow favors northern Minnesota, but the Twin Cities and southern Minnesota may get just enough to eke out a white Christmas. Our chief meteorologist Paul Huttner says he's expecting snowfall totals of up to 7-plus inches in most of Minnesota, while forecasts favor 1 to 3 inches of snow in the Twin Cities tomorrow. Stay tuned! Later today, Gov. Tim Walz is expected to offer more details on how the COVID-19 vaccine is distributed in Minnesota. Minnesota officials expect the number of doses to increase in the coming weeks, especially now that a second vaccine from Moderna is becoming available in the U.S.. As of Sunday, more than 2,900 health care workers in Minnesota received vaccines, said state infectious disease director Kris Ehresmann. The state's initial shipment last week contained 46,800 doses, and officials expect to receive more than 33,000 this week. Watch/listen to Walz's briefing at 2 p.m. this afternoon on MPRNews.org. It's official: House and Senate passed the COVID-19 aid bill, which now heads to Trump's desk. The Senate acted swiftly last night, in a 91-7 vote, to approve more than $900 billion for coronavirus assistance, shortly after the House passed the package earlier Monday A seven-day stop-gap spending bill was also approved to allow time to process the combined relief and annual funding bills and avoid a shutdown. The measure now heads to President Donald Trump's desk. A mix of hope and agony: Minnesota reports the lowest new case count since October, while the death toll nears 5,000. The latest data from health officials Monday show 22 more deaths and just under 2,000 new cases. It's the lowest since late October when the spike in cases in the state began, though the number is still much higher than normal case totals in first seven months of the pandemic. Here are Minnesota’s current COVID-19 statistics: 4,872 deaths (22 new) 399,311 positive cases (1,998 new), 373,301 off isolation (93 percent)5.2 million tests, 2.9 million people tested (about 51 percent of the population)6.7 percent seven-day positive test rate (officials find 5 percent concerning)After being battered by repeated big storms and waves from Lake Superior, Duluth's Lakewalk is now being transformed. Tthe city of Duluth has invested millions of dollars in what it hopes is a bigger and stronger Lakewalk, the popular hiking and biking trail on the shore of Lake Superior. It’s part of an effort to make the city’s shoreline more climate resilient.
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— Jiwon Choi, MPR News | 