COVID cases among long term care residents in Minnesota have nearly tripled in the last month, and infections among staff at those facilities have also gone up. State Epidemiologist, Doctor Ruth Lynfield points to a worrisome pattern of long term care workers clearly having more exposures to COVID out in the community, than in the facilities themselves. “We are very concerned that the progress that we have made can be at-risk, and can even be lost, if we let up on our precautions,” Lynfield says.
The responsibility is not only on health care workers. Lynfield says they can also catch COVID from other people who don’t take proper precautions in social settings.