The Minnesota Department of Health has reported that the state saw 10,913 new cases of COVID-19 in three days on Tuesday with an additional 51 deaths in two, leading some experts to call Minnesota the worst place to be in the nation.
"We are all beyond tired of this pandemic, but it is clearly not even close to over," Minnesota Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm shared when talking about the efforts to stop the pandemic.
The recent spike in cases and reported deaths from the virus have pushed Minnesota past the 9,000 mark in total deaths since the pandemic's start.
The three-day spike of cases reflects the severity of the virus within the state, and Malcolm said that a number of the cases are breakthrough cases, adding to the urgency of booster shots for eligible Minnesotans.
"Breakthrough cases are growing, not unexpectedly, and the data is so compelling on the value of boosters to increase that level of protection," Malcolm said.
Dr. Michael Osterholm shared with News Talk 830 WCCO that "the situation in Minnesota is very dark" as cases continue to rise.
"This is a challenging time. Right now in Minnesota, we happen to be — unfortunately — the worst place to be in the country right now," Osterholm said. "We have the highest [number] of cases of COVID of any state in the country right now."
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Malcolm expects to open booster eligibility to all adults in Minnesota by the end of the week, even though the federal government has not made that move. The decision is in an effort to drop the spike in cases the state is.
When it comes to the state getting control over the spike in cases, Osterholm shared that it all depends on vaccination rates as a chunk of the state remains unvaccinated.
"There's still a tremendous amount of human wood out there for this coronavirus forest fire to burn," Osterholm said. "This is going to continue on. We may see cases peek out in the next several weeks and then come down, but then again, we still are going to have more people in future surges whether it be in January, March whenever."
For those hoping the pandemic will just run out of time and go away, Osterholm has a clear message.
"If you are unvaccinated or if you have not had a natural infection and then, therefore, developed immunity from that, this virus will find you, it will find you," Osterholm said. "You can't run the game clock out on this."
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