Olmsted County's Covid bump is 'straining the system,' but still 'under control'

Olmsted County Covid numbers continue to trend at their highest levels of the pandemic — though public health officials say the area so far has avoided the worst impacts of the recent Midwest case surge.

The latest report shows 211 confirmed cases in Olmsted County this past week; that is the second highest weekly total since the pandemic began. The seven-day rolling average sits at 31.4 new cases per day.

One concerning pattern around the increased activity is that public health officials say they are continuing to see more instances — around 20 percent of reported cases — where they cannot trace where the transmission occurred, indicating more wide-spread community transmission.

As a result of these trends, the City of Rochester has pointed its Covid-19 Risk Dial to indicate a ‘high risk’ of Covid spread for two consecutive weeks.

‘Bump’ vs. ‘spike’

While local health officials have raised red flags about the current trajectory, the impacts of Covid in Olmsted County and across Minnesota continue to pale in comparison to Wisconsin and the Dakotas, which now rank highest in the nation in per capita infection rates.

In a recent video posted to YouTube, Olmsted County Public Health Director Graham Briggs described the difference between Minnesota and its neighbors as a ‘bump’ versus a ‘spike.’

He added that Olmsted County continues to see its percent positive rate stay below 10 percent — it’s now at 5 percent — while the rate of deaths also remains relatively low at around 18 for of every 100,000.

“While that’s too many, our rate is still considerably lower than both the state and national averages,” he said. “So, we are doing a lot of hard work in the community to keep those deaths to a minimum as much as we can.”

Heading into the holiday season, Briggs advised residents to continue doing their part to contain the virus. In doing so, he suggested, the area could avoid some of the worst affects of this third wave of Covid.

“We haven’t broken our system here in Olmsted County,” said Briggs. “We are still contact tracing every single case… and while it’s straining the system a little bit right now, we are able to keep it under control.”

Cover graphic courtesy Olmsted County Public Health