Friday, March 29, 2024

Dodge triples COVID record from previous week

In an alarming trend that is happening all across the state, Dodge County has set yet another new record of COVID cases for one week, tripling the previous week’s record.

Public Health Director Amy Caron reported 178 new cases in Dodge County over the past week, bringing the county’s total to 678 since the pandemic began in March. Two people from Dodge County are currently hospitalized with COVID-19. There have been no deaths in the county. Dodge remains one of only a handful of counties in the state that hasn’t experienced a death related to the virus. There are two people from the county currently battling COVID in the hospital.

In neighboring Steele County where Caron also serves as the top health official COVID cases are spiraling out of control even worse than Dodge County. This past week Steele County doubled its cases from the week before with 384 new cases, bring that county’s total to 1,406. There are currently 11 people from Steele County hospitalized. For the third straight week, Steele had another death. A woman in her 80s became Steele County’s fifth COVID death.

“This took me off guard. I didn’t expect it to rise that quickly,” said Caron as she reported the record numbers for both counties on Monday. “I hope we don’t see spikes like this in cases again or we are in trouble.”

Olmsted County has also seen significant jumps. The county has 5,313 positive cases, up 1,082 over the previous week. The county’s death toll remains at 30.

The new cases, Caron said, are showing up in people of all ages from 1 to 90, though the biggest contributor to the new caseload is 20-to-40-year olds. “This is showing we have very wide community spread,” she said. She added they cannot attribute the spike to any significant outbreaks within businesses or schools.

As the virus spreads rapidly, new restrictions went into place Friday for Minnesota bars and restaurants. They are now required to close at 10 p.m. as officials aim to control the spread of what has been coming from 20-to-30-year-olds most likely to be in those establishments late at night.

“It’s worth a shot,” Caron said of the new restriction. “There isn’t any great answer to any of this. We hope it will curb some of the spread.”

Caron hopes things will settle down in the coming weeks, but she’s not overly optimistic. She said her greatest concern is the upcoming holidays beginning with Thanksgiving next week.

Officials are encouraging people to not be in large groups of people. The current recommendation for getting together is for 10 or less from no more than three families. Caron says people should meet in a place where it’s larger and they can spread out more while wearing face masks.

“Everyone will have to weigh their own personal risks,” Caron said. “We should take the precautions we have been doing all along and do our best.”

Caron noted the real impact of the Thanksgiving holiday will not be known for up to two weeks after. 

 

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Dodge County Independent

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