Coronavirus Daily Briefing: Testing increasing, importance of businesses following guidelines, thoughts on herd immunity

Monday, Minnesota health officials provided the latest update on COVID-19 in the state.

Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) Commissioner Jan Malcolm and MDH Infectious Diseases Director Kris Ehresmann talked about the importance of businesses following state COVID-19 guidelines, increased testing and herd immunity, among other topics.

Malcolm stressed the importance of businesses following the state’s COVID-19 safety guidelines, such as keep capacity down and making sure people are social distancing and wearing masks. She said MDH believes most businesses are doing their best to follow the state’s guidelines but not all are. She also urged anyone who sees a business not complying to report it to the state online or by calling 651-201-4500.

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Anyone unsure about the current guidelines can see the ‘Stay Safe MN’ plan online.

MDH also talked briefly about the idea of herd immunity and some people thinking it’s best to get infected to build up herd immunity.

Ehresmann said the goal of herd immunity is to make sure you have a high enough population that is immune to protect the most vulnerable population. However, doing so by intentionally trying to get COVID-19 comes at a big cost and high risk.

Without a vaccine, intentionally getting the virus for herd immunity would run the risk of overwhelming the health care system and, therefore, possibly having more deaths.

Some of the other highlights of Monday’s call included:

• Malcolm said the median age of COVID-19 patients in Minnesota continues to drop and now stands at 37.6 years old.
• The seven-day rolling average positivity rate for the state is at 4.7%, up 0.7% from last week. MDH said increases in the rolling average positivity rate for five consecutive days would be a concern, as would a rate above 15%.
• The total number of tests performed in the state has increased by 12.8% in the past week, MDH said. During that same time, confirmed cases have increased by 10.9%, which is a good trend.
• Ehresmann noted that some studies are indicating COVID-19 patients may reach the peak level of infectiousness a couple of days before symptoms start showing. That, again, highlights the importance of social distancing and wearing a mask, Ehresmann said.
• Ehresmann said MDH has seen some cases of multi-system inflammatory syndrome in the state over the past few weeks. The most recent number Ehresmann saw reported was 13 cases, she said. No deaths related to the syndrome have been reported in the state, though.

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