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.
A third wildfire burning within the Superior National Forest was discovered Tuesday near Bogus Lake in Cook County.
The fire, 45 acres in size, was active overnight into Wednesday as firefighters and aircraft continued suppression efforts, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The cause is unknown.
Bogus Lake is less than 20 miles northeast of Grand Marais.
A drought has put much of the upper Midwest, from northern Minnesota to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, under “above normal” conditions for potential wildland fire, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
The Bogus Lake Fire is the second wildfire to be discovered in the Superior National Forest this week and the third one actively burning since early September.
Monday, a fire was detected on the eastern side of Shell Lake, about 4 miles north of Road 116 within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, in St. Louis County. That fire is less than one acre, with the potential to spread east near Agawato Lake and the Sioux-Hustler Hiking Trail, the Forest Service said.
That fire grew to 45 acres and half of it was contained as of Oct. 1, according to the Forest Service. It is suspected of being caused by humans. Firefighters remain assigned to the fire.
Star Tribune
Duluth man involved in chaotic aftermath of fatal stabbing turns himself in 6 months later
DULUTH – On the mid-April night that Chantel Moose was fatally stabbed outside a downtown bar, Trayvon Joseph Walters fired at least two shots toward the fleeing suspect and a man who was pistol-whipping the accused. Then Walters took off for six months.
Walters, 27, traveled back from Colorado and turned himself in to local law enforcement officials on Wednesday morning, according to his attorney, assistant public defender Aaron Haddorff. He faces charges of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon — along with unrelated charges of second-degree assault from 2020 — and appeared before Judge Eric Hylden in the afternoon at the St. Louis County Courthouse. His bail is set at $250,000.
Kimonte Travion Cadge, 26, who was taken to a hospital for the gunshot wound Walters allegedly inflicted, was charged with second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon. He was extradited from Cook County Jail in Chicago and was booked in St. Louis County Jail in September.
According to the criminal complaint: Moose and Plummer, who is friends with Moose’s ex-boyfriend, got into an argument after bar close on April 12 outside Spurs on 1st Street. A bouncer intervened, and Plummer reached over him to take a swipe at Moose with a knife with a 4- to 6-inch blade. Moose backed up and walked away before she dropped to the sidewalk.
When Plummer saw her fall, he took off running.
Cadge chased him, pistol-whipped him, then fired his gun at him. Walters, according to the criminal complaint, fired at least two shots toward both men, then left in a vehicle. Cadge retreated to a nearby apartment before he was transported to the hospital.
Moose was pronounced dead at a hospital, with a stab wound to the right side of her chest.
Meanwhile, dollars have been flowing to state, local and tribal governments from settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors. And Minnesota lawmakers approved $200 million last year to address substance abuse over the following four years, according to Gov. Tim Walz’s administration.
The state launched a portal last year for groups to access free naloxone, and according to the Department of Health it gave out 124,000 kits between last September and this July. But DeLaquil said funding ran out and people can no longer order kits through the portal. Many other organizations, like Steve Rummler HOPE Network, continue to distribute the medicine.
