Thread by @dhmontgomery

Buckle up, this is a bad news day for #COVID19 in Minnesota.

To start, a new record number of newly reported cases — 2,872, smashing the old record of 2,297 from two weeks ago.

MN is now *averaging* 2,000 cases per day.

Meanwhile MN also reported more than 30 #COVID19 deaths today for the second time this month, as the weekly average moves up.

Keep in in mind these are deaths deriving from cases a couple weeks ago. Case loads are higher now.

Now, some of today’s record number of cases is due to testing jumping back up to 30,000 after a few lower days.

But MN was already reporting 2,000+ cases/day with LOW testing. The outbreak is real. MN’s 7-day positivity rate is up to 8.7%. Cases are growing faster than tests.

New #COVID19 hospital admissions also continue to soar, now averaging 109/day over the past week, a record high. Today’s one-day figure was second only to two days ago.

The one saving grace is so far ICU admissions have not exploded like non-ICU admissions have. They’re up, but not above levels from the May peak.

But that’s no guarantee an ICU surge isn’t coming…

You can’t blame a big backlog for today’s case record, either:

Newly reported cases went up in every region of Minnesota. Northwestern MN continues to have the highest rates:

Here’s our weekly look at positivity rates by MN county. You can see how the outbreak in northwestern MN is not a function merely of increased testing.

Every age bracket in Minnesota is seeing record-high levels of confirmed cases. Compared to May, a lot of that is expanded testing, of course. But that includes Minnesotans over 70, who were probably the most likely to get tested back in May.

Cases are also rising in every major racial/ethnic group in Minnesota:

The growth rate of #COVID19 cases and tests in Minnesota have basically been moving in sync since mid-July… until the past week.