(KNSI) – New COVID-19 cases are increasing around the U.S. and Minnesota, and though state health leaders say the state’s current cases, test positivity rate and hospitalizations are still below their caution threshold, they say the more transmissible delta variant is concerning for those who are not — or cannot be — vaccinated against COVID-19.
In the Minnesota Department of Health’s first media briefing call in several weeks, Commissioner Jan Malcolm said the state is seeing a pattern similar to what the rest of the country is experiencing: an increase in new cases and hospitalizations, especially among people who are not vaccinated.
“The problem here is very much a problem of unvaccinated people getting exposed to an extremely contagious and dangerous virus,” Malcolm said. “That’s what’s driving the case numbers, hospitalizations and deaths right now. Certainly over the past few months, we’ve all been very relieved and very happy to see a persistent decline in COVID-19 case numbers, but that’s unfortunately changed in these last few weeks.”
Last week, Minnesota’s new COVID-19 cases increased by 50.7 percent over the previous week, and in recent weeks, daily new cases have gone up from roughly 100 new cases per day to 424 confirmed on Monday.
“That’s just a sobering reminder that we’re certainly not done with this pandemic, as much as we would like to be,” Malcolm said. “The delta variant, which is significantly more infectious than the original strain, has become the dominant version circulating in Minnesota, as well as in the country overall.”
MDH estimates that every three out of four new COVID cases are caused by the delta variant, and most of those cases are affecting people who are not vaccinated. State infectious disease director Kris Ehresmann says the state has only documented 3,886 “breakthrough” cases of COVID among fully vaccinated Minnesotans so far out of the nearly 3 million people who have gotten both Pfizer or Moderna doses or a Johnson & Johnson dose.
“That’s a breakthrough rate of less than 1 percent” Ehresmann said. “Vaccines protect against COVID-19 disease, including the variants, and they’re especially good at protecting against severe disease from COVID-19.”
On the national level, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky has said 97 percent of COVID patients hospitalized around the country are unvaccinated.
Minnesotans are continuing to get their first doses of the vaccine, but at a relatively slow pace compared to the rush seen in the spring: about 2,400 Minnesotans age 16 and older are receiving their first COVID vaccine dose each week.
“If we stay at that pace — and we would absolutely love to see that pace pick up again — we will project that we will reach the milestone of 70 percent of all 16-plus being vaccinated before the end of August.”
For children ages 11 and younger, a COVID vaccine will likely not be available for them before the school year starts.
“The word that we’re hearing is that it’s likely that that would not come until perhaps the end of 2021, so we will continue to watch for that,” Ehresmann said of vaccines for younger children.
Ehresmann adds that Minnesota has not yet seen an increase in children with COVID needing to be treated in the hospital, however, states that are seeing higher rates of COVID are reporting more cases of severe disease among children. With the start of school approaching in the next few weeks for many Minnesota children, Malcolm says science-based best practice recommendations from MDH and the CDC will be encouraged for school districts, including the use of face masks for unvaccinated students and school staff.
“The best way to keep these variants from continuing to pop up is to suppress the rates of transmission overall, and that is a time-urgent manner, especially as fall approaches and we have kids who are not yet able, under 12, not yet able to be vaccinated,” Malcolm said. “The best way that we can surround those kids with protection is for the rest of the community to be as highly vaccinated as possible.”
As for vaccination requirements, like the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ new requirement for health care staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19, Malcolm says the MDH is not having any discussions yet on implementing a vaccination mandate for state employees or MDH staff, but the department is continuing to evaluate how employers are implementing those requirements.
“It’s momentum that is, quite frankly, quite welcome on the part of employers and settings,” she said. “Certainly we encourage that; we applaud when employers do make that step. Health care employers, certainly, are in a position to play a real leading role here, and we appreciate that they are looking very seriously at that.”
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