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A brutal November for COVID-19 deaths continues to spill into December, the clearest and saddest story of the current surge.

The state Health Department on Friday reported 61 more deaths along with another 5,371 newly confirmed or probable COVID-19 cases. More than 250 deaths have been reported in the first four days of December, atop more than 1,100 deaths recorded in November.

New hospital admissions continue to ebb from Tuesday’s record seven-day average, but hospitalization levels remain high. Nearly 1,700 people were in hospitals with COVID-19 as of Thursday; more than 350 needed intensive care.

The newest numbers come as officials brace for another expected wave of cases, hospitalizations and deaths in coming weeks originating from Thanksgiving gatherings.

The deaths reported Friday raised Minnesota’s toll to 3,845. Among those who’ve died, about 67 percent had been living in long-term care or assisted living facilities; most had underlying health problems.

Minnesota’s now recorded 338,973 cases of the disease in the pandemic. About 86 percent of the people in those cases have recovered to the point they no longer need to be isolated.

Caseloads spread across age groups

New cases have been climbing over the past month among all age groups.

People in their 20s still make up the age bracket with the state’s largest number of confirmed cases — more than 65,500 since the pandemic began, including more than 35,000 among people ages 20 to 24.

The number of high school-age children confirmed with the disease has also grown, with more than 26,500 total cases among children ages 15 to 19 since the pandemic began.

Although less likely to feel the worst effects of the disease and end up hospitalized, experts worry youth and young adults will spread it to grandparents and other vulnerable populations.

It’s especially concerning because people can have the coronavirus and spread COVID-19 when they don’t have symptoms.

Gov. Tim Walz said recently the state has data showing infection rates rising around bar and restaurant activity after 9 p.m. among young adults, noting that people who have the virus but don’t have symptoms may be unwittingly spreading it.

It’s one of the reasons he’s ordered a ban on in-person service at bars and restaurants until Dec. 18.

Virus surges across rural Minnesota

Regionally, central and northern Minnesota have driven much of the recent increase in new cases while Hennepin and Ramsey counties show some of the slowest case growth in the state.

The fastest growing outbreaks remain largely along the state’s western border with the Dakotas, where the virus is spreading unchecked. But new cases are rising everywhere in Minnesota.

Collectively, rural areas continue to report the most new COVID-19 cases per capita.

Deaths continue to be highest in greater Minnesota, with per capita death rates in the western part of the state four to five times higher than in the Twin Cities metro area.

Latino cases climb

In Minnesota and across the country, COVID-19 has hitcommunities of color disproportionately hard in both cases and deaths. That’s been especially true for Minnesotans of Hispanic descent for much of the pandemic.

Distrust of the government, together with deeply rooted health and economic disparities, have hampered efforts to boost testing among communities of color, officials say, especially among unauthorized immigrants who fear their personal information may be used to deport them.

Similar trends have been seen among Minnesota’s Indigenous residents. Counts among Indigenous people jumped in Octoberrelative to population.

Cases among all races and ethnicities continue to rise, although currently the growth is slowest among Black Minnesotans, who reported the most new COVID-19 cases per capita for much of the spring and summer.

1 in 3 recent deaths tied to COVID

Minnesota’s daily death counts from COVID-19 have been especially hard to handle over the past two months. More than 1,100 people died in November alone, about 30 percent of the total in the entire pandemic.

It’s now killing Minnesotans at a rate far higher than any recent flu season. Roughly one-third of all recent deaths in Minnesota are tied to COVID-19.

In the past few years, respiratory illnesses have been a major contributing factor in about 5 to 10 percent of all deaths in Minnesota, depending on the time of year.

They accounted for around 20 percent of deaths during the state’s May COVID-19 wave. Now it’s even higher: nearly 40 percent of all deaths in Minnesota in recent weeks have been attributed to a respiratory illness such as COVID-19, influenza or pneumonia.

‘Challenging weeks ahead’

Public health officials have been trying to inject some hope into the difficult times. Earlier this week, they sketched out their plans to distribute vaccines as soon as they’re available. Federal vaccine approvals could start as soon as next week.

“We have been talking about the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s there and it’s getting closer all the time. But we do have to stay the course a bit longer before we reach it,” Kris Ehresmann, the state’s infectious disease director, said Tuesday.

The short-term direction of the pandemic, however, is still unclear. Analysts have cautioned not to read too much into the most recent figures because of the long holiday weekend.

Officials continue to plead with Minnesotans to wear masks in public gathering spaces, socially distance, stay home if they don’t feel well and otherwise stay vigilant against the spread of COVID-19.

Walz said recently he’d likely call on Minnesotans not to travel or gather for Christmas, adding there was “little reason” to expect a change in the trajectory of the virus in the next four weeks.

‘The honest, horrible truth’

State health systems are straining to staff hospital beds as COVID-19 cases grow and doctors, nurses and other care workers struggle to cope with illness among their own families and colleagues.

State officials for weeks have been raising concerns that health care workers are being sidelined by COVID-19, either by illness or exposure in their communities, or else having to care for loved ones.

Malcolm on Tuesday said 56 health care operations in the state have “staffing support needs … It is very definitely an ongoing challenge.”

The public needs to know the state’s health system is under serious stress, Dr. Cindy Firkins Smith, president of Carris Health in western Minnesota, told MPR News Monday.

“We have to tell it like it is. We have to give people the honest, horrible truth of what we’re facing,” she said. “We have to tell them, ‘If you don’t do it — if you, the public, don’t do what you can do — we can’t save you because there are only so many people to take care of people out there.’”

South-central Minnesota cases

Freeborn County reported 29 new cases on Friday and has now had 1,651 total cases, according to the Freeborn County Public Health Department.

Of those cases, 173 are considered active cases. Eighty-two people have been hospitalized at some point during their illness.

The new cases included the following:

• One person between 0 and 4

• Two people ages 5 to 9

• One person between 10 and 14

• Two people between 15 and 19

• Four people in their 20s

• Five people in their 30s

• Three people in their 40s

• Two people in their 50s

• Four people in their 60s

• Three people in their 70s

• Two people in their 80s

The following are updates from other area counties:

• Faribault County: 12 new lab-confirmed cases; 622 total cases

• Mower County: 41 new lab-confirmed cases, one probable case; 2,791 total cases

• Steele County: 45 new lab-confirmed cases; 2,147 total cases

• Waseca County: 20 new lab-confirmed cases; 1,453 total cases

 

Minnesota COVID-19 cases, deaths

County	Total confirmed cases	Total probable cases	Total cases	Total deaths
Aitkin	801	9	810	30
Anoka	22,624	1,264	23,888	238
Becker	2,224	23	2,247	21
Beltrami	2,287	58	2,345	18
Benton	3,172	91	3,263	56
Big Stone	341	7	348	2
Blue Earth	4,353	9	4,362	17
Brown	1,568	21	1,589	15
Carlton	1,857	199	2,056	18
Carver	5,062	130	5,192	15
Cass	1,535	12	1,547	12
Chippewa	987	12	999	9
Chisago	3,262	119	3,381	17
Clay	5,318	37	5,355	62
Clearwater	557	8	565	10
Cook	83	0	83	0
Cottonwood	919	48	967	4
Crow Wing	3,856	39	3,895	40
Dakota	23,483	478	23,961	202
Dodge	940	0	940	1
Douglas	2,810	72	2,882	41
Faribault	621	1	622	3
Fillmore	773	5	778	0
Freeborn	1,643	8	1,651	7
Goodhue	2,253	10	2,263	33
Grant	305	1	306	6
Hennepin	69,881	1,311	71,192	1,153
Houston	785	28	813	4
Hubbard	1,200	13	1,213	29
Isanti	1,968	101	2,069	19
Itasca	2,092	14	2,106	24
Jackson	536	10	546	1
Kanabec	699	10	709	14
Kandiyohi	4,470	34	4,504	30
Kittson	230	28	258	9
Koochiching	421	7	428	6
Lac qui Parle	417	8	425	4
Lake	420	37	457	8
Lake of the Woods	104	5	109	1
Le Sueur	1,592	14	1,606	12
Lincoln	385	5	390	1
Lyon	2,345	18	2,363	12
Mahnomen	324	1	325	5
Marshall	537	13	550	10
Martin	1,265	8	1,273	22
McLeod	2,387	14	2,401	21
Meeker	1,474	16	1,490	12
Mille Lacs	1,620	40	1,660	34
Morrison	2,452	63	2,515	31
Mower	2,759	32	2,791	23
Murray	619	7	626	5
Nicollet	1,739	10	1,749	26
Nobles	3,153	18	3,171	34
Norman	374	1	375	8
Olmsted	7,221	11	7,232	37
Otter Tail	3,406	58	3,464	26
Pennington	693	40	733	9
Pine	1,427	56	1,483	8
Pipestone	765	12	777	18
Polk	2,615	137	2,752	29
Pope	580	1	581	1
Ramsey	29,142	760	29,902	526
Red Lake	220	16	236	3
Redwood	1,050	16	1,066	20
Renville	943	43	986	30
Rice	4,337	47	4,384	39
Rock	828	19	847	10
Roseau	1,228	107	1,335	7
Scott	8,963	131	9,094	61
Sherburne	5,951	321	6,272	47
Sibley	838	10	848	4
St. Louis	9,510	261	9,771	126
Stearns	14,319	360	14,679	126
Steele	2,141	6	2,147	8
Stevens	540	4	544	4
Swift	644	12	656	10
Todd	1,909	8	1,917	14
Traverse	159	0	159	2
Wabasha	1,139	4	1,143	1
Wadena	857	22	879	7
Waseca	1,450	3	1,453	11
Washington	14,716	378	15,094	125
Watonwan	916	2	918	4
Wilkin	430	2	432	5
Winona	2,986	20	3,006	32
Wright	8,244	398	8,642	48
Yellow Medicine	686	30	716	12
Unknown/missing	404	12	416	0