Star Tribune
COVID infections decline despite viral variant in Minnesota
Coronavirus levels in Minnesota have declined so far this year after a steady increase at the end of 2023, despite the emergence of a viral variant that has been a leading cause of COVID-19 growth worldwide.
COVID-19 hospitalization and death rates remain elevated in Minnesota, according to Thursday’s weekly state update, but health officials expect them to decline if coronavirus levels continue to diminish. Sampling at 38 wastewater treatment plants across Minnesota found increases in viral levels after Thanksgiving, and again after Christmas, but then a 34% decline in early January.
“I think its starting to come down right now across the country,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. “The real challenge is just interpreting what’s next.”
The state tests wastewater to assess how much coronavirus is in Minnesota, and analyzes lab specimens from a handful of people with COVID-19 to determine which viral variants are at work. The latest results showed startling growth in the JN.1 variant, which caused 1% of Minnesota’s coronavirus infections at the start of November, but 63% by the end of December.
Osterholm said JN.1 caused COVID growth in some parts of the world this winter, because it can evade immunity in people who have been vaccinated or had prior infections. However, he said it surprisingly didn’t emerge in Minnesota and other states until COVID growth was already underway.
Respiratory viruses have caused many surprises like that this winter, he added. Minnesota has shown minimal influenza activity all winter, for example, even in weeks when bordering states and much of the country posted high to very high flu levels.
“It’s humbling. There’s something going on there that we just can’t understand or explain,” Osterholm said.
Minnesota’s weekly influenza update on Thursday showed a decline in flu-related hospitalizations, and a relatively low total of 51 flu deaths so far this season.
COVID-19 hospitalizations in Minnesota reached a peak of 536 on Jan. 2, but dropped to 324 on Tuesday. COVID-19 deaths reached nearly eight per day in early January, but that rate appears to be declining as well. Risks remain greatest in Minnesotans 65 and older, who make up 108 of the 112 COVID-19 deaths identified since Dec. 31.
Infections with JN.1 have been somewhat different from other forms of COVID-19, involving digestive symptoms and classic cold symptoms such as sore throat, Osterholm said. The variant might produce milder cases as well, but still a lot of severe illnesses that don’t show up in hospital statistics.
“People are in bed for four to five days, like they have been hit by a Mack truck,” he said. “They are not getting that seriously ill that they need hospitalization, but it’s like a bad flu hit.”
Star Tribune
Long Prairie, MN school board dismisses its superintendent, the latest controversy in this small town
LONG PRAIRIE, MINN. — The school district superintendent dressed up as the school mascot, Thor, on football nights. He read the graduation address in both English and Spanish. He even set up office hours in the cafeteria, granting easier approachability to students.
But now, two months into the school year, Daniel Ludvigson is gone. Or, rather, “on special assignment,” according to the terminology of the Long Prairie-Grey Eagle School Board, which voted 4-3 earlier this month to remove him as superintendent. The move came weeks after voting to not renew his contract, which expires at the end of the school year in June.
Four board members — two of whom voted to oust Ludvigson, including Board Chair Kelly Lemke — are up for re-election next week.
The dismissal is the latest blow in this central Minnesota community on the edge of the prairie. Over the last nine months, the town of 3,400 residents and seat of Todd County has lost its mayor, a city manager, two school board members, and now its superintendent.
Students walked out earlier this month in support of Ludvigson. Signs in support of Ludvigson can be seen across town on the lawns of apparent Democrats and Republicans alike. And last week, hundreds packed the American Legion off Hwy. 71 to eat beef sandwiches and sign support letters for Ludvigson, who only swung by to pick up his child for hockey practice.
In a time of great divide in America, this fight has nothing to do with politics.
“You’ve got Harris buttons and Trump hats side-by-side, arm-in-arm,” said Amanda Hinson, a former local newspaper reporter who is concerned the board is not being upfront about why they placed Ludvigson on special assignment. “We want transparency in our government.”
Lawn signs around Long Prairie, Minn., now include people weighing in on the dismissal of Superintendent Daniel Ludvigson by the school board. (Christopher Vondracek)
School board members say Ludvigson has repeatedly shown he is not ready for the prime time of a school district bigger than the one in central North Dakota he arrived from two years ago. They have twice disciplined Ludvigson, but did not state the reason for placing him on “special assignment,” beyond insinuating that staff are fearful to raise official complaints.
Star Tribune
Snow and rain on Halloween
Rain and potentially heavy snow are on tap Thursday around the Twin Cities, just before families set out for Halloween trick-or-treating.
Temperatures were expected to drop throughout the day, creating conditions for flurries. A winter weather advisory is in effect from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. covering the Twin Cities metro area and parts of south-central Minnesota. Steady rain drenched the Twin Cities on Thursday, making for a soggy morning commute.
“As colder air begins to move in this morning, the rain will transition to heavy snow from west to east with snowfall rates of an inch per hour at times into early afternoon,” the National Weather Service in Chanhassen said in a weather advisory.
The Twin Cities and surrounding areas could get between 2 and 4 inches of snow, according to the weather service. The winter weather advisory is expected to affect Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, Washington and Le Sueur counties.
It’s unclear how much of the snow will actually stick, with warm surface temperatures likely leading to melting on contact in many areas.
“Exact totals will depend on snowfall rate, surface temperatures, and melting — which increases uncertainty with the snow forecast,” the weather service said in an early Thursday briefing.
“Thundersnow possible!” the weather service emphasized.
The good news for Halloween revelers is that the snow and rain are expected to wrap up in time for trick-or-treating, though temperatures will remain in the 30s with a sharp windchill.
Star Tribune
Alcohol use suspected by off-duty deputy in injury crash in Afton, patrol says
An off-duty Washington County sheriff’s deputy caused a head-on crash while under the influence of alcohol and injured a couple in the other vehicle, officials said.
The crash occurred about 10:40 a.m. Sunday in Afton on Hwy. 95 at Scenic Lane, the Minnesota State Patrol said.
Campbell Johnston Blair, 58, of Hastings, was heading north in his Subaru Crosstrek, crossed into the opposite lane and collided with a southbound Ford Expedition, the patrol said.
Blair and the other vehicle’s occupants, 38-year-old Erik Robert Sward and 36-year-old Heather Lynn Sward, both of Lake Elmo, were taken to Regions Hospital with non-critical injuries, according to the patrol.
The patrol noted the alcohol use by Blair was involved in the crash.
Blair, who was driving a private vehicle at the time of the crash while off-duty, has been a deputy with the Sheriff’s Office since 2020 and is currently assigned to our Court Security Unit.
The Sheriff’s Office has been asked for reaction to the crash involving one of its deputies.