Across the 10-county region, which includes three Wisconsin counties, another 355 people have tested positive, according to state health officials. That cumulative number is up by more than 100 from the previous week.
Additionally, the Northland recorded 14 new deaths from COVID-19 and its complications this week. That's the most deaths the region has logged since early January. Seven of those people were St. Louis County residents, five lived in Itasca County and one each lived in Carlton County and Wisconsin's Douglas County.
This week's totals account for any cases or deaths reported March 12-18.
The percentage of people testing positive in five of the seven Northeastern Minnesota counties has trended slightly upward.
Since early February, all seven counties had maintained weekly testing positivity rates below 5%, which is the threshold for widespread community transmission. However, Itasca County's 7-day positivity rate increased by three percentage points this week to 6.3%.
New cases last week (March 5-11) and new cases this week (March 12-18) in Northland counties:
St. Louis County
The state of Minnesota reported 194 new cases of COVID-19 in St. Louis County this week. Last week, or March 5-11, the county logged 127 new cases, not including 117 old cases from late 2020 that were previously never reported.
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Of this week's new cases, slightly less than half were in southern St. Louis County, or Duluth, Hermantown, Proctor and Saginaw. Typically, 60% of the county's cases have been in the southern part of the county.
Aurora and Ely have both seen an unusual rise in cases in the last week. Aurora has logged 21 new cases since Friday, March 12. On Monday, St. Louis County Public Health Division Director Westbrook wrote in a letter to the families of Mesabi East students that in the first two weeks of March, 15 cases among youth ages 5-19 were confirmed in the Aurora area from community transmission.
In response to that, the state of Minnesota announced Thursday that a temporary testing event will take place at the Aurora Community Center on Monday and Tuesday.
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"We are increasingly concerned about dramatic increases in cases, particularly in St. Louis County," Dan Huff, Minnesota's assistant health commissioner, said in a news release. "Right now Aurora is at the heart of this COVID-19 hotspot, which is spreading to neighboring counties. It is essential folks on the East Range have access to easy and no-cost testing.”
Aubrie Hoover, of St. Louis County Public Health, told the News Tribune that there has been an increase in close contacts testing positive for COVID-19 — more so than usual.
"Now, MDH and local public health, we're just wanting to maintain situational awareness and alert to unusual patterns in cases or transmission and where we're seeing possibly a rapid spread or higher attack rates," Hoover said.
Number of new cases this week in St. Louis County postal communities:
- Duluth — 82.
- Aurora — 21.
- Ely — 15.
- Virginia — 14.
- Eveleth, Hermantown, Hibbing — each recorded 10.
- Mountain Iron, Gilbert — each recorded five.
All other postal communities had fewer than five new cases this week, according to St. Louis County's COVID-19 dashboard. The county's seven-day testing positivity rate was 2.7% on Thursday.
Carlton County
COVID-19 case growth increased this week in all Northland counties except for Carlton County. Since Friday, March 12, the county has logged 14 new cases. That's still the lowest weekly case number the county has recorded since September.
Ten of those cases were among residents in Cloquet's ZIP code and three cases were linked to residents of Barnum's ZIP code, according to data from the state of Minnesota.
The county's seven-day testing positivity rate, or percentage of tests that come back positive, was 1.5% on Thursday. The last time the county's rate was that low was in late December.
News Tribune reporter Adelle Whitefoot contributed to this report.
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