Month: May 2020

The United Way of Crookston and Polk County DAC has a long-standing relationship working together.  This year the DAC used grant money from the United Way to purchase curriculum for their clients. United Way Executive Director Lori Wagner said that Jo Bittner, DAC Executive Director, and Becky Johnston, DAC Program Coordinator, have been great partners for the United Way. “United Way and the DAC have been partners for a long time,” said Wagner. “I can tell you; Jo Bittner has been a wonderful partner for the United Way. She does things for the United Way within her four walls year-round. She makes bars and asks her people who want to donate a quarter for this bar and that kind of thing. She does her own internal campaign for United Way; she just does wonderful things.  Also, her associate Becky Johnston is also great for the United Way. This year what we partnered with them on is an education curriculum.”

Wagner said the DAC staff were excited about the ways the curriculum could benefit their clients when they presented at the United Way grant hearings earlier this year. “They want to keep their program fresh and interesting,” said Wagner. “They want to keep stimulating them, motivating them, challenging them, and serve a variety of different skill levels. This year they worked with the UDAC out of Duluth and were so excited when they came to talk to us during the hearings for United Way. They wanted to purchase this curriculum that was developed out of Duluth.  This is what we helped them purchase.”

The activities in the curriculum teach skills such as turn-taking, fine motor skills, and cause and effect. Over 50 activity boxes are teaching different skills such as matching, and folding laundry explains Johnston.  “This activity here is different types of matching games,” said Johnston. “We make it into a fun, competitive game for everyone. We have over 50 boxes constructed so far with different curriculum. The point of this is making sure we’re able to color identify and fold our laundry.

Polk County continues to have the most positive COVID-19 tests in northwest Minnesota, outside of Clay County (Moorhead) with 41. Norman County has eight, Marshall County now has 6 positive tests, Mahnomen County has two, while Red Lake, Pennington, Kittson, and Roseau counties have one each. All the numbers, graphs, and interactive map is available below.

The Minnesota Department of Health today announced the confirmation of another 435 COVID-19 cases, for a new total of 6,663 cases in the state (for case count by county see below).

A total of 1,199 COVID-19 cases have been hospitalized in Minnesota to date. Currently 373 cases are hospitalized, with 155 in intensive care.

Today’s update includes another 24 COVID-19 deaths, 21 of which occurred in long-term care facilities, for a new statewide total of 419. The age range and county of residence: 

• 1 Hennepin County resident in their 100s
• 7 Hennepin County residents in their 90s
• 3 Hennepin County residents in their 80s
• 3 Hennepin County residents in their 70s
• 2 Hennepin County resident in their 60s
• 2 Hennepin County resident in their 50s
• 1 Hennepin County resident in their 40s
• 1 Ramsey County resident in their 80s
• 1 Ramsey County resident in their 70s
• 1 Ramsey County resident in their 60s
• 1 Anoka County residents in their 90s
• 1 Anoka County Resident in their 80s

Two deaths not in a long-term care facility occurred in Hennepin County and the other death not in a long-term care facility occurred in Anoka County.

NOTE: One death from yesterday’s count was listed as Hennepin County that should be listed as Washington County. The death was a resident in their 70s.

“We express our condolences to the families and friends of those who died,” Minnesota Commissioner of Health Jan Malcolm said. “We continue our work along with many partners around the state to protect Minnesotans and prevent additional deaths. It is very important for all Minnesotans to do their part in that effort by following social distancing guidelines and other public health recommendations.”

Counties of residence of new COVID-19 cases:

Data is for cases that were tested and returned positive. Numbers are cumulative since Jan. 20, 2020. All data are preliminary and may change as cases are investigated. Many data points are collected during case interviews. Data presented below are for all cases, regardless of interview status. Data for cases pending interview may be listed as “unknown/missing”.

Not all suspected cases of COVID-19 are tested, so this data is not representative of the total number of people in Minnesota who have or had COVID-19.

Updated May 3, 2020.
Updated daily at 11 a.m., with data current as of 4 p.m. the previous day.
Data for April 12 was as of 8 p.m. the previous day.

Dates provided are those when the case, hospitalization, or death was first posted in this situation report.

• Minnesota COVID-19 Public Dashboard
• Minnesota’s COVID-19 Response and Preparation Capacity
• CDC: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Cases in the U.S.
• Minnesota COVID-19 Modeling

Former Luitenent Governor Michelle Fischbach has received the Republic party’s endorsement for Minnesota’s 7th congressional district.
Fishbach defeated Dave Hughes, who has run in the last two elections on the Republican ticket by a 65 to 35 percent margin after a lengthy virtual convention that had several ballots. It comes as no surprise that Fischbach won the nomination as she brings more name recognition to the race and Hughes, while giving Peterson two of his closer races in the past two elections, came up short both times.
Fischbach received an endorsement from President Donald Trump in early March and the 7th District race will likely be a race with national interest as the Republicans feel this is their chance to finally beat Peterson after 28 years in office.