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Morning Edition
Cathy Wurzer

Holiday season helps COVID-19 spread, older Minnesotans feeling increase in cases

A person holds a Covid-19 test kit
Minnesota Department of Health COVID-19 testing site at MSP Airport in Bloomington on Jan. 27.
Stephen Maturen for MPR News

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The amount of COVID-19 detected in the state’s wastewater is up nearly 45 percent since Thanksgiving.

Susan Kline is an infectious disease doctor with University of Minnesota and M Health Fairview. She says older Minnesotans are feeling the increase most.

“The 85 and older group is the most heavily affected right now. Probably at rates that were seen last winter, in a similar range,” Kline says. “But much higher than the rates were last summer for the elderly. And we’re seeing similar trends for all age groups, but it’s more marked in the elderly.”

While the increase is not as severe as in the height of the pandemic, Kline said the state is seeing about 10 percent of those who test for COVID receive a positive test.

Vaccination continues to help protect against severe illness and hospitalization. Kline recommends getting a booster shot, which takes two weeks to reach full efficacy. And she says to stay home and test for COVID if you’re feeling sick.

There are some new variants, including one known as JN.1, which has been growing in proportion since November — around 15 to 29 percent of new cases. But Kline said that typical symptoms remain for these new variants of COVID.

“As far as we know so far, it’s going to have the very similar illness to the other COVID that we have seen over the past three years.