This past weekend, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx urged Minnesotans to double down in their efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19. Echoing critical public health messaging from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), Dr. Birx urged Minnesotans to wear masks, practice social distancing, and avoid large crowds. While in Minnesota, Dr. Birx met with Governor Tim Walz and state public health officials.

“While Minnesotans have worked hard to slow the spread of COVID-19, Dr. Birx’s visit confirms what we already know – we cannot let up,” said Governor Walz. “COVID-19 fatigue is real, and we are all feeling it. But with fall and winter fast approaching, Minnesotans must double down in their efforts to mask up, social distance, and protect their community.”

Dr. Birx particularly urged Minnesotans in rural areas to take additional precautions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

“Growing up in a town of less than 300 people, I know firsthand how rural communities can feel a false sense of immunity,” Walz said. “But the truth is that COVID-19 does not respect boundaries and affects communities of all sizes. In fact, rural areas have the potential to be the hardest hit by this pandemic. I urge people across Greater Minnesota to heed the advice of White House Expert Dr. Birx and take action to keep their communities safe.”

See coverage of Dr. Birx’s visit below.

Birx urges Minnesota to 'buckle down' on COVID-19 before winter (Star Tribune)

By Jeremy Olson

The White House’s top COVID-19 adviser urged Minnesotans to buckle down and reduce the spread of the infectious disease before winter weather crams everyone indoors and transmission risks increase.

Dr. Deborah Birx was in St. Paul on Sunday to meet with state officials, first with Gov. Tim Walz then with health and policy leaders.

Much of the attention to reduce the spread of the virus has been focused on restaurants and public places, but people need to take the same precautions in their personal and family gatherings, said Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator.

“We’re asking every Minnesotan to work really hard over the next four to six weeks to really bring these cases down,” she said, “because when you have lower level cases, it’s much easier to contact trace and get into those neighborhoods and find those asymptomatic spreads and really know you are containing the virus completely.”

Minnesota right now is categorized by the Covid Exit Strategy website as “trending poorly” in its COVID-19 case growth, but neighboring states such as Iowa and the Dakotas have a worse rating of “uncontrolled spread” of the virus. Wisconsin also is listed as trending poorly.

Birx said she is concerned that the number of Minnesota counties with positivity rates of diagnostic testing above 10% has increased over the past month from two to nine.

“There really does need to be improvement out in rural areas.” Dr. Deborah Birx

Birx’s team is visiting states one at a time — with Wisconsin and Illinois up next. Birx said she visited local hotels and restaurants to see if COVID-19 precautions were being taken seriously, and said she saw a level of attention in local establishments not seen in all other states.

One concern is that the initial urban spread of the virus has resulted in less compliance in rural areas, she said. “There is a real attention to these mitigation efforts in the urban areas, but there really does need to be improvement out in many of the rural areas.”

Birx said she received a request from the governor to maintain flexibility in the federal CARES Act so that Minnesota could tailor its response to the pandemic. Walz spokesman Teddy Tschann said “they agreed that while Minnesotans have by and large worked hard to slow the spread of COVID-19, there is still work to be done.”

Birx said she also talked with a leader of the Fond du Lac Reservation and noted the need to protect American Indians, who have the highest COVID-19 death rate of any racial group in the U.S.

In Minnesota, the COVID-19 death rate among American Indians is 151 per 100,000 people, compared with a rate of only 23 per 100,000 people among non-Hispanic white people, according to the Minnesota Department of Health.

The state on Sunday reported two more COVID-19 deaths and 934 new infections, with a total of 1,816 COVID-19 deaths and 75,189 lab-confirmed infections. New case numbers have been somewhat inflated over the past week by the overdue reporting of more than 10,000 diagnostic tests by one lab, but also by a recent increase in outbreaks related to large group outings, including weddings and parties and at bars and restaurants.

The state stepped up enforcement this weekend of its requirements that dining establishments limit their indoor service to 50% of their fire code capacities, require people to wear masks, and maintain social distancing.

Birx’s visit is the latest step in an erratic relationship between Minnesota and President Donald Trump’s federal administration when it comes to the COVID-19 response.

Walz has criticized Trump for the lack of a national COVID-19 response but has done so cautiously given the federal government’s ability to outbid states on key supplies such as masks and gowns, and to manage state allocations of remdesivir for hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Trump in April criticized the state’s COVID-19 shutdown with a “Liberate Minnesota” tweet but then complimented the state days later after a phone call with Walz. He then sent Vice President Mike Pence to promote the COVID-19 research and treatment efforts at Mayo Clinic.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also tapped Minnesota as one of four states to study how to eventually prioritize and distribute initial limited doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

The state on Sunday reported that 315 Minnesotans were hospitalized for COVID-19, including 136 people who needed intensive care. The number of hospitalizations had increased in July but leveled off in August.

State health officials are concerned that the start of K-12 classes and the reopening of colleges could result in a new wave of cases — with younger, healthier teenagers and young adults eventually spreading the virus to people at greater risk of severe complications.

More than nine in 10 COVID-19 deaths in Minnesota have involved people who are 70 or older or have underlying health conditions such as diabetes or heart disease.

The current CDC list of health conditions that complicate COVID-19 also includes cancer, chronic kidney disease, COPD, post-transplant immune system weakness, sickle cell disease and obesity. That puts a substantial share of Americans at elevated risk, given that the adult obesity rate in Minnesota alone exceeds 30%.

Birx said younger and healthier people do have some personal risks from COVID-19 — with some infections resulting in long-term health issues — but that they need to take precautions to protect others, including their own parents and grandparents.

“There’s 81 million Americans with comorbidities,” Birx said, “and so in order to protect the 81 million with comorbidities, you need to protect the 330 million from spreading the virus to those 81 million.”

White House expert: Rural Minnesotans need to do more to fight COVID-19 (Pioneer Press)

By Dana Ferguson

Rural Minnesota communities need to take additional precautions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, a top White House coronavirus response official said on Sunday, and all Minnesotans should take more care if they choose to meet with family and friends.

Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, met with Gov. Tim Walz and health care and community stakeholders near the Capitol in St. Paul on Sunday before holding a media availability to discuss the closed talks.

It’s Birx’s latest visit as she travels the country to better understand states’ coronavirus response. She visited North Dakota a day prior and planned to continue through the Midwest in coming days.

Birx said Minnesota has taken strong precautions to stave off the disease, but around the state, not all are abiding by mandates to wear face masks or limiting gatherings. And that could allow the disease to continue spreading in Minnesota, she said.

“Throughout many of the places we have stopped in Minnesota between rural gas stations and urban areas, there is real attention to these mitigation efforts in the urban areas but there really does need to be an improvement in many of the rural areas,” Birx said. “This virus has gotten very much into rural areas, so rural areas have to pay as much attention to this virus as urban areas.”

Birx said state health officials and tribal leaders had asked her for more flexibility in spending federal funds aimed at responding to COVID-19. And she had made the request on behalf of the White House that the state take steps to clamp down on COVID-19 positivity rates in the Twin Cities metro and prevent the spread into neighboring communities.

With fall and winter impending in Minnesota, she said additional compliance with prevention measures could prevent future stay-at-home measures. Birx urged Minnesotans to wear masks any time they meet with family or friends as well as when they enter public spaces. And she said continued social distancing and hygiene measures were critical.

“I know that it’s difficult, I know that people are getting fatigued when it comes to COVID, but together we can make it through these next few months really protecting one another,” Birx said. “The community protects the community by stopping the spread of this virus community by community. It doesn’t spread by mosquitoes, it’s not running around. It happens between us, in human-to-human interaction.”

Walz and Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm on Sunday didn’t provide comment about the visit, though Malcolm looked on during the news conference. Walz has previously criticized the Trump administration for failing to offer states a comprehensive COVID-19 response, leaving states to take on mitigation and treatment efforts on their own.

“We have power against this virus,” she said, “but it requires all of us to exert our power together.”

Sunday’s visit comes after the state on Sunday reported 934 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and two more deaths attributed to the illness, bringing the total number of Minnesotans who’ve perished from COVID-19 and its complications to 1,816.

White House advisor Dr. Birx worries rural Minnesota isn’t taking COVID-19 seriously enough (Fox 9)

By Fox 9 Staff

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - One of the nation's most prominent voices in the response to COVID-19 made a stop in Minnesota on Sunday.

Dr. Deborah Birx, a member of the White House's coronavirus task force, met with Governor Tim Walz Sunday before hosting a roundtable with local leaders on COVID-19.

White House advisor Dr. Birx worries rural Minnesota isn’t taking COVID-19 seriously enough

One of the nation's most prominent voices in the response to COVID-19 made a stop in Minnesota on Sunday.

Birx, who is on a weeks-long trip to several states to see how COVID-19 is being handled at the ground level, says she has made a point to visit businesses and restaurants across Minnesota.

In the Twin Cities, Birx says she’s been pleased to see the measures implemented to slow COVID-19 spread at restaurants. However, she worries not enough is being done in rural communities.

“Throughout Minnesota, between rural gas stations and urban areas, there is real attention to these efforts in the urban areas, but there needs to be improvement out in the rural areas,” explained Dr. Birx.

Since July, she says they’ve seen a consistent and significant number of infections in the Twin Cities and surrounding counties, a trend she called worrisome.

"This state has gone from two to five to now nine counties over ten percent," explained Birx. "That trend is worrisome this late into the summer.”

Dr. Birx says her team traveled around the state, eating at restaurants and staying at hotels observing mitigation efforts in both urban and rural areas.

"We’ve been really impressed while we were eating out last night your restaurants are following the guidelines," Dr. Birx said. "We don’t see that everywhere and so that’s reassuring but every Minnesotan needs to follow the guidelines."

She said she observed less compliance in Greater Minnesota, stressing the importance of wearing a mask when social distancing isn’t possible and avoiding large gatherings no matter where you live.

"Sometimes in rural communities, because of their experience in March and April, they see this as a big city phenomenon," she explained. "No, this virus has gotten into the rural areas."

With Birx saying the next four to six weeks will be critical in containing this virus.

"We have power against this virus but it requires all of us to exert our power," said Birx.

Birx makes mask pitch, voices concerns over Minnesota COVID-19 trends (MPR)

By Brian Baskt

The White House’s top COVID-19 adviser urged Minnesotans to buckle down and reduce the spread of the infectious disease before winter weather crams everyone indoors and transmission risks increase.

Dr. Deborah Birx was in St. Paul on Sunday to meet with state officials, first with Gov. Tim Walz then with health and policy leaders.

Much of the attention to reduce the spread of the virus has been focused on restaurants and public places, but people need to take the same precautions in their personal and family gatherings, said Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator.

“We’re asking every Minnesotan to work really hard over the next four to six weeks to really bring these cases down,” she said, “because when you have lower level cases, it’s much easier to contact trace and get into those neighborhoods and find those asymptomatic spreads and really know you are containing the virus completely.”

Minnesota right now is categorized by the Covid Exit Strategy website as “trending poorly” in its COVID-19 case growth, but neighboring states such as Iowa and the Dakotas have a worse rating of “uncontrolled spread” of the virus. Wisconsin also is listed as trending poorly.

Birx said she is concerned that the number of Minnesota counties with positivity rates of diagnostic testing above 10% has increased over the past month from two to nine.

“There really does need to be improvement out in rural areas.” Dr. Deborah Birx

Birx’s team is visiting states one at a time — with Wisconsin and Illinois up next. Birx said she visited local hotels and restaurants to see if COVID-19 precautions were being taken seriously, and said she saw a level of attention in local establishments not seen in all other states.

One concern is that the initial urban spread of the virus has resulted in less compliance in rural areas, she said. “There is a real attention to these mitigation efforts in the urban areas, but there really does need to be improvement out in many of the rural areas.”

Birx said she received a request from the governor to maintain flexibility in the federal CARES Act so that Minnesota could tailor its response to the pandemic. Walz spokesman Teddy Tschann said “they agreed that while Minnesotans have by and large worked hard to slow the spread of COVID-19, there is still work to be done.”

Birx said she also talked with a leader of the Fond du Lac Reservation and noted the need to protect American Indians, who have the highest COVID-19 death rate of any racial group in the U.S.

In Minnesota, the COVID-19 death rate among American Indians is 151 per 100,000 people, compared with a rate of only 23 per 100,000 people among non-Hispanic white people, according to the Minnesota Department of Health.

The state on Sunday reported two more COVID-19 deaths and 934 new infections, with a total of 1,816 COVID-19 deaths and 75,189 lab-confirmed infections. New case numbers have been somewhat inflated over the past week by the overdue reporting of more than 10,000 diagnostic tests by one lab, but also by a recent increase in outbreaks related to large group outings, including weddings and parties and at bars and restaurants.

The state stepped up enforcement this weekend of its requirements that dining establishments limit their indoor service to 50% of their fire code capacities, require people to wear masks, and maintain social distancing.

Birx’s visit is the latest step in an erratic relationship between Minnesota and President Donald Trump’s federal administration when it comes to the COVID-19 response.

Walz has criticized Trump for the lack of a national COVID-19 response but has done so cautiously given the federal government’s ability to outbid states on key supplies such as masks and gowns, and to manage state allocations of remdesivir for hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Trump in April criticized the state’s COVID-19 shutdown with a “Liberate Minnesota” tweet but then complimented the state days later after a phone call with Walz. He then sent Vice President Mike Pence to promote the COVID-19 research and treatment efforts at Mayo Clinic.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also tapped Minnesota as one of four states to study how to eventually prioritize and distribute initial limited doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

The state on Sunday reported that 315 Minnesotans were hospitalized for COVID-19, including 136 people who needed intensive care. The number of hospitalizations had increased in July but leveled off in August.

State health officials are concerned that the start of K-12 classes and the reopening of colleges could result in a new wave of cases — with younger, healthier teenagers and young adults eventually spreading the virus to people at greater risk of severe complications.

More than nine in 10 COVID-19 deaths in Minnesota have involved people who are 70 or older or have underlying health conditions such as diabetes or heart disease.

The current CDC list of health conditions that complicate COVID-19 also includes cancer, chronic kidney disease, COPD, post-transplant immune system weakness, sickle cell disease and obesity. That puts a substantial share of Americans at elevated risk, given that the adult obesity rate in Minnesota alone exceeds 30%.

Birx said younger and healthier people do have some personal risks from COVID-19 — with some infections resulting in long-term health issues — but that they need to take precautions to protect others, including their own parents and grandparents.

“There’s 81 million Americans with comorbidities,” Birx said, “and so in order to protect the 81 million with comorbidities, you need to protect the 330 million from spreading the virus to those 81 million.”