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Child-care COVID-19 exposures rise in Minn. amid delta variant

Star Tribune - 8/19/2021

Potential COVID-19 exposures in child-care settings have increased over the past month in Minnesota along with coronavirus infections involving a fast-spreading delta variant.

A weekly state pandemic report released Thursday showed more than 100 potential exposures in child-care settings per week in three of the last four weeks, with the majority involving children rather than staff.

While children are at far lower risk of severe COVID-19 illness, the number of exposures is concerning for health officials because people 11 and younger aren't eligible for vaccination and remain vulnerable to infection.

The increase started at the height of summer camp season in the last week of July, said Dr. Beth Thielen, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at M Health Fairview. "That was really before things even started to spiral in Minnesota."

Potential exposures are defined as people who attend a child-care facility while infectious with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, or who test positive and attend a facility that had another positive case within 28 days. Facilities include summer camps and child-care centers, but not in-home child-care operations.

Potential exposures have only slightly increased in K-12 facilities and colleges ahead of the fall start of school.

The increase in child-care exposures tracks with the emergence of a delta variant of the coronavirus that is responsible for an estimated 95% of new infections in Minnesota. The state on Thursday reported eight COVID-19 deaths and 1,355 new infections, raising Minnesota's totals in the pandemic to 7,750 deaths and 631,858 infections.

Seven of the newly reported deaths involved senior citizens, who have suffered 88% of Minnesota's total COVID-19 deaths. The eighth COVID-19 fatality involved a Hennepin County resident in the 55 to 59 age range.

Health officials have urged COVID-19 vaccination to reduce the spread of the coronavirus and prevent severe illnesses and hospitalizations. Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis was part of a national group that published results Wednesday showing that people still had strong protection against hospitalization 24 weeks after receiving the two-dose Moderna or Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines.

Dr. Heidi Erickson, a critical care physician at HCMC who co-authored the study, said she is urging all unvaccinated people to seek shots if they are eligible for them.

"As a physician who takes care of these patients, and who has lost patients in their 30s and 40s to this disease, it's an existential sort of crisis now of seeing unnecessary deaths and suffering from an illness that is preventable," she said.

More than 3.2 million Minnesotans 12 and older have received at least a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine — or 69.4% of the eligible population.

COVID-19 hospitalizations in Minnesota increased to 473 on Wednesday — up from 90 in late July.

The hospitalization number remains considerably lower than Minnesota's peaks during prior waves of 699 in April and 1,864 last November — and levels in Southern states reporting more viral activity. Alabama is reporting more than 2,700 people hospitalized with COVID-19 right now and Missouri is reporting more than 2,300.

Jeremy Olson • 612-673-7744

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