MANKATO — Minimal COVID-19 deaths and cases this spring point to the south-central Minnesota region being in as good of shape as ever since the pandemic began.
The nine-county area combined for only 22 new cases between May 7-13 and one fatality from the illness over the last two reporting weeks, according to data from the Minnesota Department of Health.
It’s a time of “relative COVID peace,” stated Derek J. Wingert, a local data analyst who’s tracked case trends during the pandemic.
“While we must always be vigilant of new trends emerging, the near-term picture looks the best it has in years — and life around us reflects that in how similar it looks to pre-pandemic days,” he wrote in an email.
“With continued vaccination and basic common sense, we have very realistic hopes of continuing like this at least into the fall.”
One area county, Watonwan, even reached zero new cases in the May 7-13 week, a rarity during the pandemic. The zero could partly be a quirk of how few test results get officially recorded now, but all indications suggest case levels are extremely low regardless.
The 22 new cases regionwide were a decline from 37 during the previous week. All area counties had fewer than nine cases in the latest week.
The region’s most recent fatality occurred in Faribault County, which accounts for 64 of south-central’s 601 since the pandemic began. Faribault County has the highest fatality rate among area counties.