According to Ehresmann, the growth of cases in the state continues to decrease. MDH commissioner Jan Malcolm said the state’s seven-day positivity rate is currently at 3.9%, which is below the caution category. Ehresmann said that hospitalizations are also decreasing.
Although the state still needs more vaccines, Ehresmann said the state is making progress in “putting vaccines in the gun.” As of Thursday, more than 777,000 Minnesota residents have received at least one dose of vaccine.
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While Ehresmann and Malcolm spoke of promising developments, they urged Minnesota residents to continue using caution and following guidelines.
“Until we finally reach the goal of crushing COVID, we all need to keep our guard up,” said Ehresmann.
The discovery and dissemination of new variants of the coronavirus is one of the areas that Ehresmann pointed out when talking about the need to continue to be cautious.
There are currently 18 cases of the UK variant detected in Minnesota and two cases of the Brazilian variant.
Malcolm said the presence of the variants puts the state in a “race against time” to vaccinate as many people as possible.
The commissioner added that equitable and ethical decisions about the distribution of the vaccine will continue to be critical for the state.
“The strategy for distributing the vaccine to the state is to find people where they are and make it easier for people to be vaccinated as supplies increase,” said Malcolm.