The COVID-19 situation in Wright County has significantly worsened this week. Over the days earlier in the week for which we have complete testing back, we have been seeing about 8 cases per day in the county (and of course this doesn’t include people without symptoms who do not get tested). To this point we have not seen this high a level of sustained spread within the county that can’t be linked to an outbreak at a specific workplace. It is truly affecting all areas of the county and many of the cases do not know where they got it from.
In addition, the number of hospitalizations continues to increase both across the state and locally. There are 461 COVID patients currently hospitalized in the state, which is easily the most of the entire pandemic. We have 3 Wright County residents who are currently hospitalized.
With this level of spread and the coming cooler weather that will move more activities indoors where it is easier to be exposed to a large amount of virus, we are entering a much more dangerous phase of the pandemic. It is a broken record I know, but the only protection we have is limiting contacts and wearing face coverings consistently when this is unavoidable, whether indoors or outdoors. Even if you are wearing a mask, being around others who are not leaves you only partially protected since the virus can also enter through the eyes. Many of the recent cases have been spread through family gatherings and I would strongly consider using masks even when in contact with family members that live outside your household. This particularly applies if high-risk individuals are involved. We really need everyone to step up and lead by example if we’re going to protect our community.
Finally, if you have symptoms that could be due to COVID (even if they are mild!) please get tested. COVID is tricky in that some people have very mild symptoms and others are extremely severe. We need to be detecting mild cases too so that people know to isolate themselves from others.
