Area's new COVID-19 cases slightly rose this week

Brian Arola, The Free Press, Mankato, Minn.
·2 min read

Feb. 26—MANKATO — Area counties combined for 77 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases Friday, contributing to an overall rise in cases this week.

The nine south-central Minnesota counties combined for 358 new cases between Feb. 20-26, according to the Minnesota Department of Health.

It was a 5.3% increase compared to the previous week, which had 340 cases.

The weekly numbers come as the region again had no newly confirmed COVID deaths Friday. There were 12 more confirmed COVID deaths statewide, however, raising Minnesota's pandemic death toll to 6,462.

Weekly cases in February have gone as low as 296 and as high as 404. The last two weeks have been in between, with little noticeable trend emerging.

Counties within the region continued to show great variance in case upticks and downticks this week. Five counties had increases in cases this week, while four had decreases.

Blue Earth County was among the downticks. It had 87 new cases this week compared to 101 last week.

Waseca, Faribault and Martin counties joined Blue Earth in having fewer new cases this week. Martin County's drop from 39 to 25 new cases was the biggest by percentage.

The rises, meanwhile, occurred in Nicollet, Le Sueur, Brown, Watonwan and Sibley counties.

Nicollet County easily had the biggest uptick. After 38 new cases in the previous week, it jumped up to 70 this week.

The county's total has jumped around in February so far. Starting in early February, it's had 34, 72, 38 and 70 new weekly cases.

Le Sueur, Brown, Watonwan and Sibley counties had smaller rises which would've been offset by drops elsewhere if not for Nicollet County.

The 77 newly confirmed cases Friday were one of the highest daily totals in February. Nicollet and Le Sueur had the most new cases in the region with 15 each.

Each of the nine area counties had at least three new cases.

The full list of newly confirmed cases by county includes:

* Nicollet County — 15

* Le Sueur County — 15

* Blue Earth County — 13

* Brown County — 11

* Watonwan County — 7

* Faribault County — 5

* Waseca County — 4

* Sibley County — 4

* Martin County — 3

Statewide, Minnesota's COVID numbers show the state holding fairly steady, although there has been an uptick in new and active cases.

Hospitalization rates remain encouraging and down to levels from last fall. There were 263 people with COVID in Minnesota hospitals as of Thursday; 60 patients needed intensive care.

Known, active cases rose to 7,367 after sitting below 7,000 for four consecutive days. The trend line remains stable.

The state has recorded 482,978 total confirmed or probable cases so far in the pandemic, including 1,156 reported Friday. About 97% of Minnesotans known to be infected with COVID in the pandemic have recovered to the point where they no longer need to be isolated.

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