Minnesota health officials are warning that a more contagious variant of the coronavirus, first identified this fall in the United Kingdom, is already circulating in the state beyond the five cases identified Saturday.
“We identified cases in four counties. but that doesn’t mean it is confined to those four counties,” Kris Ehresmann, state director of infectious disease for the state Department of Health. “This is circulating in our state.”
Two of the five people determined to have the more contagious version of the coronavirus are from the same household, Ehresmann said. Two of the five had travelled internationally and the travel history of two others was unknown.
The five diagnosed with the new strain ranged in age from 15 to 37 and fell ill between Dec. 16 and Dec. 31. None had to be hospitalized.
The new variant of the virus so far has been identified in eight states. While it spreads more easily, it is not believed to cause more severe symptoms and the newly approved COVID-19 vaccines appear to be just as effective.
However, the arrival of the more contagious version of the coronavirus is concerning to health officials as Minnesota continues to reopen parts of society that were closed in late November to blunt a surge of infections.
Minnesota has gone from diagnosing nearly 125 new cases per 100,000 residents in mid-November to about 30 new cases per 100,000 Monday. Case positivity and hospitalization rates have also both been cut in half during that time frame.
The death rate has also declined, falling from a seven-day average of nearly 64 per day in early December to an average of fewer than 40 per day last week.
While those trends are all good news, health officials caution that they could be temporary. They will be closely monitoring the effect reopening restaurants to indoor dining, reopening health clubs and restarting sports has on the state of the pandemic.
Numbers released Monday illustrate how one day’s worth of data provides a very limited look at the shape of the Minnesota’s outbreak.
The state Department of Health reported four more COVID-19 fatalities and 980 new infections. That’s the fewest new cases and fatalities since late October.
Yet, Ehresmann said Monday afternoon that a delay in the reporting of results from one laboratory left nearly 10,000 test results out of Monday’s data update. Those results will be included with Tuesday data update.
Daily new case numbers also are typically lowest early in the week because fewer tests are conducted and process over the weekend.
The state has now diagnosed 437,552 coronavirus cases since March. There have been 5,711 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 68 more fatalities suspected to have been caused by the coronavirus.
More than 417,000 residents who tested positive have recovered enough they no longer need to be isolated.
Hospitalizations continue trend downward from a late November peak. There are 686 patients hospitalized including 141 in critical condition.
The state has also administered 147,645 does of the coronavirus vaccine to residents as of Monday morning.
