State Health Officials Update COVID-19 Dashboard

ST. PAUL -- The Minnesota Department of Health is making some changes to their COVID-19 Dashboard as the state prepares to start reopening.

During Thursday's situation update, State Epidemiologist Ruth Lynfield announced some new indicators have been added that the department will be watching closely.

The governor asked us to come up with some measures for which we can assess the outbreak in Minnesota and he could use these in consideration of whether we need to dial back or not.

Lynfield says the goal is to keep the rate of increase in the number of positive cases below 15 percent over an average of 7 days, the testing capacity at or above 5,000 tests per day, the case doubling rate above five days, and the percentage of cases with no known contact, (community spread) under 30 percent.

If any of the numbers drop below the listed goals, the Stay at Home order could be reinstated.

She also says they are working to put together similar goals for hospitalization and ICU case rates, rates of cases among healthcare workers, the amount of available personal protective equipment, and the rate of COVID-19 deaths.