Governor Tim Walz today signed a bill designating 21 million more dollars for the state’s response to coronavirus. Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm says that cautions about the illness are *not* overblown: “This is such a rapidly evolving situation around the world. We’ve not seen something spread this quickly — really it’s unprecedented in modern times.”
Malcolm says Minnesota should expect more coronavirus cases, particularly as testing ramps up. “As we’ve seen in other communities, while all of the Minnesota cases so far have had a known source of exposure, it is quite likely that we will see community spread in Minnesota at some point,” she says.
Mass gatherings have been cancelled in some places as coronavirus spreads, but Malcolm says, “We are not there in Minnesota…. We are working with folks, having folks know that’s a possibility in the future but, based on our situation today, we have not made recommendations for cancelling large gatherings.”