Cook County COVID case count nears 30 as Election Day arrives

As the 2020 election dominates the headlines across Minnesota and beyond, the case count for the new coronavirus in Cook County continues to climb.

As of Nov. 2, there’ve been a total of 29 cases of COVID-19 reported in Cook County since the onset of the pandemic. Many of the local positive tests were reported within the past six weeks.

Due to limited staff capacity in the county’s public health department, it will be more difficult to track the exact or even approximate number of new cases on any given day. The Minnesota Department of Health website that lists the number of cases for all of Minnesota’s 87 counties often does not align with the Cook County COVID-19 hub website. To further complicate the ability to track the day-to-day COVID report, county officials announced last week they would only update the hub site on Mondays and Thursdays moving forward. The previous practice was to update the hub site with each new cases or when appropriate.

Regarding the most recent data released by county officials, Cook County has received notice of seven new COVID-19 cases dating back to Thursday, Oct. 29. Among the new cases were five Cook County women ranging from age 90 to under ten. Two Cook County men also tested positive in recent days, including one in his 50s and another in his 30s. 

There are many test results still being processed in Cook County at this time. The next release date from county officials will be Nov. 5.

Joe Friedrichs November 2, 2020