Ap
MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota officials are reopening four free coronavirus testing sites this week as circulation of the highly contagious delta variant renews demand for testing.
The reopened locations include sites in St. Paul and Bloomington, augmenting existing metro area sites in Brooklyn Park and at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Outside of the metro area, locations in St. Cloud and Mankato are expected to resume testing this week.
The increase in testing locations comes as virus cases continue to grow across the state and hospitals near full capacity, with both intensive care unit beds and overall hospital beds more than 90% occupied.
St. Louis County health officials and healthcare workers said Tuesday that hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 are surging in the region — the vast majority in unvaccinated people.
Andrea Boehland, an emergency department doctor with Essentia Health, said the strain in capacity is coinciding with a time of year when the number of patients seeking treatment for ailments unrelated to the virus is high. Staffing constraints due to exhaustion and difficulty finding travelling healthcare workers who had helped during surges earlier in the pandemic are creating further challenges.
The healthcare workers listed vaccination and masking in public settings as the most effective ways to limit transmission and reduce the strain on healthcare systems.
