WILLMAR — Kandiyohi and the counties it borders along with Stearns County all reported increases in the number of COVID-19 cases, according to the Minnesota Department of Health in its Friday update.
Kandiyohi County reported eight new cases, plus one additional confirmed patient living in the county, for a total of 610. Pope County experienced five new cases, for a total of 24. Renville County saw five new cases, for a total of 42.
Swift County has three new cases in the Friday report, bringing that county total to 43.
Meeker County saw one new case, for a total of 69, and Chippewa County also saw one new case, for a total of 84.
Stearns County saw an increase of 19 cases — 15 of them newly reported in Friday's update, bringing its total to 2,615.
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The state lists newly reported cases each day attributed to a county, and also separately lists confirmed totals of patients with positive tests residing in each county.
Confirmed county of residence can lag the numbers of new positives attributed to a county as the residence is confirmed during a case interview conducted after the positive test.
Statewide there were 669 new cases for a total of 45,013 with 4,278 of them being health care workers.
There were seven additional deaths attributed to COVID-19, for a current total of 1,533.
Most of the deaths, 1,183, have occurred in long-term care or assisted living facilities, and 1,236 of the deaths were 70 years or older.
Statewide, there are 252 COVID patients currently in hospitals, 110 of them being treated in ICUs.
The Minnesota Department of Health is also reporting that 38,568 of the state's reported positive cases no longer need to self-isolate.
So far in Minnesota, there have been approximately 819,511 completed tests since Jan. 20.
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The Clara City Care Center was removed from the list of congregate care facilities with a COVID-19 exposure, while Glesener's Assisted Living Services, Bird Island, was added.
The Department of Health defines exposure as a person diagnosed with COVID-19 who either visited, worked, or lived at a congregate care facility while they were contagious. Facilities that have not reported a new exposure for a minimum of 28 days are removed from the list, updated weekly on Fridays. If a new exposure is identified, the facility will once again be listed.
The information was included in the latest Minnesota Department of Health daily situation update , released at 11 a.m. daily. The data released are current as of 4 p.m. the day before.
The current number of confirmed COVID-19 cases for area counties includes:
Big Stone County: 18
Chippewa County: 84, up 1
Kandiyohi County: 610, up 9
Lac qui Parle County: 6
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Meeker County: 69, up 1
Pope County: 24, up 5
Redwood County: 26
Renville County: 42, up 5
Stearns County: 2,615, up 19
Swift County: 43, up 3
Yellow Medicine County: 35
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