New poll data! @MPRnews/@StarTribune/@kare11/FRONTLINE Minnesota find a plurality of Minnesota voters believe #COVID19 restrictions in their area were “about right,” with 30% saying they went “too far” and 26% saying “not far enough.” mprnews.org/story/2021/09/…
@MPRnews@StarTribune Here’s how various demographic subgroups broke down on the question of #COVID19 restrictions. “About right” was the dominant feeling in most groups, including (by a slim margin) Republicans. Residents of Northern MN were likely to say they went too far; Democrats not far enough.
@MPRnews@StarTribune Our poll asked these registered voters if they had taken the #COVID19 vaccine. 80% said yes. That’s a little higher than the CDC’s count of vaccinated 18+ Minnesotans — but remember this poll is only of registered voters. Vax rates may be lower among nonvoters.
@MPRnews@StarTribune We found Minnesotans were divided about vaccine requirements to attend public events or return to in-person work. But this division was driven by near-universal opposition among the 20% who are unvaccinated. Sizable majorities of vaccined Minnesotans back the mandates:
It’s been just over two weeks since most Minnesota kids returned to school, and the data has become quite clear: the school #COVID19 surge many people expected is here.
Minnesotans aged 10-19 are seeing the highest rates of new infections right now, which is unusual — over the whole outbreak, it’s been working-age adults who’ve tended to have the most cases.
Unclear how much of this is an artifact of expanded testing, though.
Minnesota does not break out its daily testing data by age. We know testing has drastically expanded in Minnesota in recent weeks, and more testing confirms a higher share of infections that were there whether we knew about it or not.
Today’s report saw week-over-week cases and positivity rate rise in Minnesota, with positivity rate crossing 6% for the first time this wave.
But this uptick was sort of expected — LAST Tuesday was full of good news. We’re still below 2 weeks ago’s positivity.
Similarly, tomorrow we can expect our 7-day averages to probably move downward, because last Wednesday’s data (8% daily positivity) will be relatively easy to beat.
So while the trendline looks a little unsettling, I think it’s mostly a statistical artifact. We’ll see, of course. Our rate of change over 2 weeks is still flat.
Today’s #COVID19 update (really the last update from last week — this is data as of Friday morning) closes off an up-and-down week on a bright note. Cases and positivity rate both fell slightly week-over-week, but remain quite elevated.
Hospitalization numbers are still ticking upwards, though, which is more concerning.
Overall, the impression I’m getting from the data in Minnesota is a plateau — not recovering, but also not accelerating again.
Isn’t this a tantalizing development in Minnesota’s positivity rate? That little turn downward after a period of flatness...
We’ll see whether it’s just a blip or the start of something significant in future days.
Cases, hospitalizations and positivity growth all continue to slow steadily…
One thing worth noting: more than 20 new #COVID19 deaths reported today. This isn’t a backlog — they basically all took place since Aug. 24. Not sure what’s up with this, but again: never overreact to one day of data.
No peak yet to Minnesota’s #COVID19 wave — but no escalation, either. Just hovering barely above flat. Our current positivity rate of 5.6% is just slightly above the 5.2% two weeks ago and flat week-over-week.
This is the slowest Minnesota’s positivity rate has been growing since the earliest days of this current wave.
With lag times for infection, and then testing and reporting, the earliest a State Fair bump would probably show up in the data would probably be next week.