The long wait for when the COVID-19 surge will arrive locally is over.
After posting just four new COVID-19 cases between the period of June 17 and August 11 this summer, the rural and city zip code areas of Brooten (56316), Belgrade (56312) and Elrosa (56325) have posted the number of 12 new cases between the seven-day period of August 12 (last Thursday) and yesterday, August 18. The number 12 in one week is the highest number since April of this year. These figures are from the Minnesota Department of Health.
This breaks down as follows:
Belgrade 56312: five new cases
Brooten 56316: seven new cases
Elrosa 56325: NO new cases.
The population living in these zip code areas is approximately 4,300 people. The Belgrade zip code has over 2,600 people; the Brooten zip code has almost 1,500 people; and the Elrosa zip code includes about 230 men, women and children. I'm most tuned in with the Brooten zip code, and from May 20 through August 12, this area has had just two new COVID-19 cases. Now the cumulative total for COVID-19 cases from January 2020 through today is 168 (about 11 percent).
For a little more perspective, from January 14 of this year through March 25 of this year, the Brooten zip code area posted a total of nine new cases. In that same time span, the zip code area of Belgrade posted 33 new cases. The local spring surge started in the final week of March and then sputtered out in the third week of May.
The May 20, 2021 MDH report showed 11 new cases in our B-B-E zip codes. That number plummeted to zero a week later in the May 27 report just as essentially all COVID-19 restrictions were removed from the powers-that-be. The May 13 report showed four new cases, the May 6 report showed five new cases, and the April 29 report showed 15 new cases.
Other new COVID-19 weekly B-B-E zip code case figures from last spring:
April 22: 12 new cases
April 15: 25 new cases (this marked our spring peak)
April 8: 10 new cases
April 1: 10 new cases
March 25: 2 new cases
March 18: 5 new cases
March 11: NO new cases
March 4: 5 new cases
February 25: 6 new cases
February 18: 4 new cases
February 11: 3 new cases
February 4: 6 new cases
January 28: 5 new cases.
Time to dig into the area zip codes in central Minnesota. I noticed the Sunburg zip code posted a three this week after a zero last week and a three in the August 5 MDH report. I'll get more information added on a Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper web article that you can find by clicking on this short link: https://bit.ly/3j3djQa.
*UPDATE: late on Thursday afternoon, I've got the area board updated with new case count increases per zip code.