4/16/2020
A sunny start to Thursday. Twin Cities grows cloudy as the day goes on with highs in the mid-40s and 10 to 15 mph winds. Statewide, highs in the upper 30s to mid-40s. More on Updraft. | Forecast
Minnesota will need a drastic increase in COVID-19 testing in the next three weeks. Gov. Tim Walz has set a goal of 5,000 tests a day by May 4, when his stay-at-home order expires. The state has averaged about 1,100 tests a day this week. However, ramping up to Walz’s target is critical to a successful reopening of the state's economy, he said. The state must now “go it alone” on testing, Walz said while conceding that logistical issues and an initial belief the federal government would take command of testing had delayed the process. More death and a spike in ICU patients. On Wednesday, the Health Department confirmed eight new deaths and nearly 20 more coronavirus patients in intensive care. The latest coronavirus statistics: 1,809 cases via 40,242 tests 87 deaths 445 cases requiring hospitalization 197 people remain in the hospital; 93 in ICUs 23 percent of cases in congregate living settings 940 patients recovered Economists’ word of the day (and the days before that) is “uncertainty.” While none of us want to hear it, even the experts don’t have much of a clue as to when the economy will begin reopening, let alone what’s safe and moral amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “None of us knows how long this is going to go on because we don’t know how the virus is going to progress and how the health care system will be able to respond to it and hopefully get ahead of it,” Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, said on an MPR News special. The World Health Organization has something of a plan for ending coronavirus lockdowns. Billions of people under some sort of stay-home order and the WHO says we should be prepared to "change our behaviors for the foreseeable future.” However, it did release a list of six conditions for ending lockdowns, as NPR reports: Disease transmission is under control Health systems are able to "detect, test, isolate and treat every case and trace every contact" Hot spot risks are minimized in vulnerable places, such as nursing homes Schools, workplaces and other essential places have established preventive measures The risk of importing new cases "can be managed" Communities are fully educated, engaged and empowered to live under a new normal Let’s end on something nice … like the beginning of our photojournalist Evan Frost’s new series called Portraits of Valor, featuring World War II veterans. First up: Dan Cylkowski of Little Canada, Minn. — Cody Nelson, MPR News | 