Like an elevator that goes from floor 12 to 14 without an unlucky 13, I should probably have skipped part 13 of this series yesterday and proceeded directly to part 14. After posting part 13 early yesterday morning, I sought to participate in Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s daily press briefing by contacting Walz press secretary Teddy Tschann, as directed by Minnesota Department of Health information officer Michael Schommer. Tschann did not favor me with the courtesy of a reply. I have tried again today. I’m feeling lucky.
As of this morning, the death toll attributed to COVID-19 by the Minnesota authorities ramped up from 79 to 87. I listened to the governor’s daily press briefing live streamed on the Alpha News Facebook page. Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm stated that the 9 new deaths were “heavily concentrated among the elderly.” Indeed, all 9 were residents of nursing homes or assisted-care living facilities. Video of yesterday’s briefing is archived here
The median age of decedents is 87. That too remains unchanged since the day before. See the Minnesota Department of Health COVID-19 Situation Update. Decedents so far have fallen within an age range from 56 to 100 (screenshot below).
The state of Minnesota remains on lockdown under the shutdown order announced by Governor Tim Walz on March 25 and now extended to May 4. At the press briefing yesterday, Department of Employment & Economic Development Commissioner Steve Grove announced that nearly 465,000 unemployment compensation claims have been filed since March 16, “when the first COVID-19 related Unemployment Insurance applications started,” as the department puts it. That is a staggering number.
Governor Walz asserted that Grove’s department leads the nation in implementing the CARES Act “as fast as possible.” According to Walz, Minnesota is the first state to implement the 13-week CARES Act extension of unemployment benefits. And that’s not all. They continue to “improve processes.” Woo hoo!
To the extent unemployment was addressed at all, the governor and his commissioners addressed it in terms of claims processing. They’re dancing as fast as they can. The question why the state must be shut down to protect those whose lives are put at risk by the virus went unasked.
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