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As crowds lined up for a second day of free COVID-19 testing at six National Guard armories around Minnesota on Sunday, the state saw its number of confirmed cases climb past 20,000.

The death toll now stands at 869.

The Minnesota Department of Health on Sunday reported 730 more confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state, for a total of 20,573. The state reported 8,471 completed tests — the second day in a row with a total exceeding 8,000.

Officials reported the deaths of 17 more Minnesotans from COVID-19; 12 of those people were residents of long-term care facilities, which have seen the majority of deaths from the disease in Minnesota.

The number of people hospitalized dropped to 553, down from a record high — 568 — in Saturday’s report.

The number of people being treated in ICUs dropped to 207, from 215 on Saturday.

About 64 percent of people who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in Minnesota have recovered to the point where they no longer need to be isolated.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Saturday announced new guidance for places of worship, allowing churches, mosques and synagogues to resume services starting Wednesday as along as they keep gatherings to no more than 25 percent of building occupancy.

But state health officials say those new rules — and other recent easing of stay-at-home measures — don’t mean the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic has passed.

“Large gatherings continue to present a clear, documented risk for increasing the spread of COVID-19. We continue to see pretty rapid increases in our numbers of cases and deaths,” State Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said Saturday at a press briefing with Walz. “So even though we are slowly and carefully trying to open up opportunities for Minnesotans to resume activities that are so important … this does not mean we’re on the other side of this.”

“I think it’s going to be very difficult over the next couple weeks. It is my belief we are going to see some pretty rough weeks when we head to that peak no matter what we do,” Walz cautioned.

Malcolm said some Twin Cities hospitals have had to start using so-called surge capacity.

“Our Level 1 trauma centers have had to activate additional beds, which is really important because we need those Level 1 trauma centers, obviously, to be able to fulfill their entire missions, and not only be full with COVID cases,” she said.

Free COVID-19 testing will continue Sunday and Monday at six National Guard armories across Minnesota.

It started on Saturday in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, Moorhead, St. James and Faribault.

At the Minneapolis location, there was a line when testing started Saturday morning with wait times estimated at 2 to 3 hours. National Guard officials reported later Saturday that wait times had decreased.

“We are glad to see” the strong turnout, Malcolm said Saturday. “I know that people are waiting in lines and there’s an awful lot of demand there — and we’re learning a lot from today’s events that will help us to be even better at getting testing out into the community.”

 

Local COVID-19 cases

Faribault County: no new cases; 11 total cases

Freeborn County: two new cases (one in their 40s and one in their 60s) ; 84 total cases

Mower County: 12 new cases; 150 total cases

Steele County: two new cases; 140 total cases

Waseca County: no new cases, 24 total cases

 

Confirmed statewide cases

County	Cases	Deaths
Aitkin	6	0
Anoka	1,164	55
Becker	32	0
Beltrami	12	0
Benton	166	2
Big Stone	3	0
Blue Earth	112	1
Brown	11	2
Carlton	73	0
Carver	161	2
Cass	11	3
Chippewa	40	0
Chisago	48	1
Clay	366	23
Clearwater	2	0
Cook	0	0
Cottonwood	62	0
Crow Wing	42	1
Dakota	1,059	35
Dodge	43	0
Douglas	29	0
Faribault	11	0
Fillmore	17	1
Freeborn	84	0
Goodhue	52	2
Grant	2	0
Hennepin	6,918	534
Houston	2	0
Hubbard	1	0
Isanti	25	0
Itasca	52	7
Jackson	39	0
Kanabec	11	1
Kandiyohi	454	1
Kittson	1	0
Koochiching	5	0
Lac qui Parle	3	0
Lake	1	0
Lake of the Woods	0	0
Le Sueur	41	1
Lincoln	5	0
Lyon	31	0
McLeod	26	0
Mahnomen	5	1
Marshall	8	0
Martin	124	5
Meeker	42	0
Mille Lacs	16	1
Morrison	38	0
Mower	150	1
Murray	35	0
Nicollet	68	3
Nobles	1,457	2
Norman	11	0
Olmsted	551	10
Otter Tail	55	0
Pennington	7	0
Pine	85	0
Pipestone	10	0
Polk	58	2
Pope	7	0
Ramsey	2,316	97
Red Lake	3	0
Redwood	3	0
Renville	5	0
Rice	365	2
Rock	21	0
Roseau	1	0
St. Louis	111	13
Scott	346	2
Sherburne	208	1
Sibley	12	0
Stearns	1,923	12
Steele	140	0
Stevens	0	0
Swift	15	0
Todd	197	0
Traverse	3	0
Wabasha	16	0
Wadena	6	0
Waseca	24	0
Washington	506	26
Watonwan	50	0
Wilkin	11	3
Winona	77	15
Wright	240	1
Yellow Medicine	5	0
Unknown/missing	19	0