Hubbard County surpassed 30 deaths from COVID-19 over the weekend. Compared to eight neighboring counties, this figure is second only to Otter Tail County’s 32 deaths.
“There could be a variety of factors, but no specific medical factor that has Hubbard County residents at a higher death rate at this time,” said Sonja Day, communications/marketing specialist for CHI St. Joseph’s Health. “Some factors could be age, underlying health issues, possibly seeking medical care too late, but again we do not have a specific factor identified. Risk factors for Hubbard County residents are no different than anyone living anywhere else.”
Tara Ekren, marketing and communications specialist for Essentia Health, said their analytics staff checked for any clear indicators in their data that might give a reason for the differences in Hubbard County.
“Unfortunately, they were not able to come to any definite answer of what could be the outlying factor in this county,” she said. “There is a suggestion that the reason Minnesota is showing as such a hard hit area could be due to the increase in long-term care facility outbreaks.”
Nevis Elementary School and Menahga High School joined the list of schools reporting five or more confirmed cases of COVID-19 in students or staff who were in the building while infectious during a two-week reporting period.
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Following are the total number of positive COVID-19 cases in the lakes area, by county, as of Monday, Dec. 7 from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH).
Becker: 2,335, up 18 cases since Dec. 6 and 1 additional death (24 deaths).
Beltrami: 2,350 cases, up 24 cases since Dec. 6 (18 deaths)
Cass: 1,615 cases, up 17 since Dec. 6 (13 deaths)
Clearwater: 582, up 5 cases since Dec. 6 (10 deaths).
Hubbard: 1,248, up 11 cases since Dec. 6 (31 deaths).
Mahnomen: 330, up 3 cases since Dec. 6 (6 deaths).
Norman: 385, up 1 case since Dec. 6 (8 deaths).
Otter Tail: 3,629, up 49 cases since Dec. 6 and 1 additional death (32 deaths).
Wadena: 932, up 19 cases since Dec. 6 (8 deaths).
In Becker County as of Dec. 7, there were 237 active cases, with 2,098 cases no longer contagious, according to Becker County Public Health.
According to Beltrami County Public Health, there were 686 new cases between Nov. 21 through Dec. 4 in that county, with 224 being actively monitored.
Minnesota reported an additional 5,296 cases of COVID-19 on Dec. 7.
The state's cumulative total number of cases is 356,152, which includes 347,534 confirmed and 8,618 probable cases.
Of the cumulative number of cases, 25,769 of them are health care workers.
The 4,005 deaths attributed to COVID-19 includes 3,913 deaths from confirmed cases and 92 from probable cases.
Most of the deaths, 2,645, have occurred in long-term care or assisted living facilities, and 3,301 of the deaths were 70 years or older.
The Minnesota Department of Health is also reporting that 314,138 of the state's reported positive cases no longer need to self-isolate.
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So far in Minnesota, there have been approximately 4,623,492 completed tests, including 4,494,494 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests and 128,998 antigen tests. Approximately 2,669,121 people have been tested since Jan. 20.
