Star Tribune
COVID hospitalizations in Minnesota rise to last winter’s level
COVID-19 hospitalizations are back to levels not seen since February in Minnesota, where experts are watching the emergence of coronavirus variants that could fuel a fresh wave of illnesses.
Thursday’s update still put COVID activity far below the levels Minnesota endured during the global public health emergency — which ended in May. Minnesota’s 412 hospitalizations on Tuesday compared to 1,651 on the same date in 2021. But they still represented a doubling since October — when up-and-down COVID levels raised hopes that Minnesota would avoid another wintertime surge.
COVID has been at its worst during Minnesota winters, but the emergence of new variants is responsible for the latest activity, said Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. COVID has simultaneously increased in the summer in Australia and Brazil, debunking the notion of seasonality, he added.
“The biggest driver for what happens with cases is which variant takes over,” he said.
Surveillance by Minnesota’s public health laboratory offers a picture of multiple variants at work rather than a single dominant strain. A sampling of infections in early November still found the XBB variants that have been responsible for most COVID illnesses in 2023. However, an EG.5 variant is now responsible for 30% of illnesses and an HV.1 variant is responsible for 26%.
Sewage sampling has identified a 45% increase in coronavirus levels in wastewater statewide over the past two weeks, according to tracking by the University of Minnesota. However, COVID wastewater levels are only back to where they were last spring — trailing the growth in hospitalizations.
That divergence raises the possibility that an emerging variant is causing a higher rate of severe illness among people it infects, Osterholm said. Immunity levels also have waned because people are farther out from prior COVID infections and only 14% of Minnesotans are up to date with the latest vaccinations.
Research will determine if the latest variants evade the immune protection offered by vaccines, but “the best data we have is that they should surely reduce the risk of severe illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths,” he said.
Age remains a dominant risk factor for severe COVID, which has been lab-confirmed as a cause of 15,367 deaths in Minnesota since early 2020. People 75 and older make up less than 10% of Minnesota’s population but more then 80% of the 330 COVID deaths reported in the state since the start of October.
Hospital capacity levels remain stable in Minnesota despite the increase in COVID activity, partly because infections with RSV have already shown signs of peaking this winter and the flu season is just getting started.
The state on Thursday reported six influenza-related deaths so far this season and 267 hospitalizations — with 80 of the hospital cases reported just this week.
Two men are dead and one woman was injured in a shooting at a homeless encampment in south Minneapolis on Sunday afternoon, police said. It was the second shooting at a Minneapolis encampment this weekend.
At about 2:20 p.m. Sunday, police responded to a reported shooting in the 4400 block of Snelling Avenue near the railroad tracks at the small encampment between Snelling and Hiawatha avenues. At the scene, officers found two men with fatal gunshot wounds, said Sgt. Garrett Parten Minneapolis Police spokesman. Responders rendered aid, but both men died at the scene.
A woman was found at the scene with life-threatening injuries and was taken to a local hospital where she was being treated Sunday night, he said. Police have yet to say whether the three were living at the encampment.
Officers detained three people, who Parten said have since been released after police found they were not believed to be involved in the shooting. No suspects had been identified as of 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
The shooting is the second at a southside homeless encampment this weekend. One man died and two were critically injured early Saturday at an encampment shooting near E. 21st Street and 15th Avenue S. On Sunday, the man was identified as Deven Leonard Caston, 31, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office.
“We don’t know if there’s a connection between this homeless encampment shooting and the one that occurred yesterday,” Parten said on Sunday. “That is a consideration of the investigation. We can’t rule it out.”
Ward 12 Council Member Aurin Chowdhury, who represents the area and lives nearby, was at the site of the shooting Sunday afternoon. She said officials need information about what happened to better understand how to address situations like this long-term.
“This is an absolute tragedy, and this type of violence should never occur within our city,” she said. “It really makes me think about how we need to look at this more systemically and not just take a whack-a-mole approach and expect the problem to go away.
During Sunday’s Twitch stream, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez played Madden while discussing making homebuying more accessible, building affordable housing, eliminating student loan debt and raising the federal minimum wage.
After the match, Walz showed off his Sega skills in a round of “Crazy Taxi,” the Y2K-era racing game where gamers play as a taxi driver picking up passengers and taking them to their destination for cash.
Walz called himself a “first-generation gamer” and recalled playing “Crazy Taxi” when he bought a Sega Dreamcast. He also mentioned the Minnesota Star Tribune’s coverage of how his old game console was sold and ended up with a Plymouth resident, who still has it.
Afterward, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez watched a short clip of Trump denying on Rogan’s podcast that he lost the 2020 presidential election. Democrat Joe Biden won that year.
Ocasio-Cortez during the livestream also showed viewers her farm on the cozy, indie game Stardew Valley. Walz said the game reminded him of Minnesota: “You’ve got mining,” he said. “You’ve got agriculture. You’ve got snow.”
Before Walz headed out to a rally in Nevada, he pleaded with viewers to vote. More than 12,000 viewers tuned into the livestream on Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitch channel. More watched from Harris’ channel.
”Hey guys, they’re now scrambling and trying to call us Nazis and fascists,” said Alina Habba, one of Trump’s attorneys, who draped a sparkly ”MAGA” jacket over the lectern as she spoke. ”And you know what they’re claiming, guys? It’s very scary. They’re claiming we’re going to go after them and try and put them in jail. Well, ain’t that rich?”
Declared Hogan in his characteristic raspy growl: ”I don’t see no stinkin’ Nazis in here.”
Trump has denounced the four criminal indictments brought against him as politically motivated. He has ramped up his denunciations in recent weeks of ”enemies from within,” naming domestic political rivals, and suggested he would use the military to go after them. Harris, in turn, has called Trump a ”fascist.”
The arena was full hours before Trump was scheduled to speak. Outside the arena, the sidewalks were overflowing with Trump supporters in red ”Make America Great Again” hats. There was a heavy security presence. Streets were blocked off and access to Penn Station was restricted.
In the crowd was Philip D’Agostino, a longtime Trump backer from Queens, the borough where Trump grew up. The 64-year-old said it was appropriate for Trump to be speaking at a place bills itself as ”the world’s most famous arena.”
”It just goes to show ya that he has a bigger following of any man that has ever lived,” D’Agostino said.
