Minnesota has its first confirmed case of coronavirus.
"This is cause for concern but not panic," Minnesota Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said.
The older adult Ramsey County resident was recently on a cruise alongside a known COVID-19 case. The unidentified person started showing symptoms Feb. 25 and went to the doctor Thursday. The person is at home recovering in quarantine.
Health officials are reaching out to people who may have come into contact with them.
"Our preliminary understand is that the person has largely been at home," Malcolm said. "As far as we know, this is a person who's not really out and about much, but we're very new in this investigation. These people who may have been in contact with the person will be asked to quarantine themselves for 14 days from the date of their exposure and will be monitored for fever and respiratory symptoms."With an increase in cases in other states, officials knew it was only a matter of time before Minnesota saw its first.
"This is a travel-related case of exposure," Malcolm said. "This is not a case of community exposure of unknown origin. That is a critical distinction."
Governor Tim Walz explained that vulnerable populations to the virus include older adults and people with immune problems.
"As with other outbreaks, some people will get the illness, and some will not," Walz said. "The great majority of people who get COVID-19 will have mild symptoms and may require little, if any, medical care. Some will have moderate-to-severe illness and some will require extensive medical care. The risk of severe illness appears to lower among healthy adults and children and higher for elderly and those with underlying medical conditions."
Minnesota has not reached the point of community mitigation such as temporarily closing schools, shutting down large events or affecting public transit. They're continuing to monitor the situation.
"That is the kind of thing we're thinking ahead on about what kinds of community mitigation activities might be necessary should we see ourselves in the situation where we have large numbers of cases popping up in different parts of the community with different sources of exposure," Malcolm said. "We are not at that stage now, but we are preparing for that eventuality and that would include close coordination with the transit system."
There's no way to predict what the future of the virus looks like.
"I think it's very important to remember, and it's quite logical that everyone would wonder, are we now going to go from one to hundreds or thousands," Malcolm said. "That is certainly out hope to prevent that and is not necessarily the trajectory that we would see. I would remind us all that our colleagues in Wisconsin were among the first to report a case. They had one case several weeks ago. They still have one case.
"I think it's just to keep it on context that our whole goal here is to now work aggressively in the containment mode to make sure we identify as many other potential cases that are out there that we can."
No vaccine exists for the virus yet. MDH officials strongly emphasize continuing to cover your sneeze or cough in your elbow, wash hands for 20 seconds regularly and stay home when sick.
State agencies and lawmakers have been coordinating a response for weeks with daily briefings. Majority Leader Paul Gazelka said in a statement Friday afternoon that he has "notified both the House and the Governor that the Senate will convene on Monday morning to pass $20.9 million in funding for the Public Health Response Contingency account. We are working to move this bill quickly to provide care for those who will need it."
MDH will continue testing in its own lab through the weekend. A public hotline is open until 8 p.m. Friday: 651-201-3920.It will be open 9 a.m. to 4:30 pm. Saturday and Sunday as well.