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Freeborn County Public Health issued a press release over the weekend about how positive COVID-19 cases have continued to rise in Freeborn County over the last few weeks, while other counties in southeastern Minnesota are seeing numbers decline.

While there are likely many factors that have contributed to that increase, the department stated some of the factors involve family and private gatherings to celebrate recent holidays, youth sports practices starting, and bars and restaurants opening up.

We hope everyone uses this time as a reminder to stick to the basic safety measures, including wearing masks, washing hands and social distancing.

While vaccinations have begun, and this week more information was provided about vaccinations for people ages 65 and older, many questions remain and there is still a ways to go.

We know people miss the way things used to be before the pandemic and miss the interactions; however, we hope that until things are able to fully return to the pre-COVID way of living, people will help keep things open as much as possible by doing their part to minimize the spread of COVID-19.