BROWN COUNTY — Brown Country COVID-19 cases continued to climb over the weekend, according to the Brown County Public Health update posted late Sunday.

There were 102 new cases reported Saturday and Sunday in Brown County, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 1,126 as of Sunday.

Forty-nine new COVID-19 cases were reported in the Monday update, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 1,175.

“We had a pretty busy weekend,” said Brown County Public Health Director Karen Moritz. “I know it’s very fatiguing for people, but aren’t our values to keep people safe?”

The Minnesota Department of Health website showed 24 COVID-19 deaths Monday, the lowest number in nearly a week.

Minnesota has had 3,265 COVID-19 deaths since they began being reported on March 21.

“COVID is putting extraordinary pressure on your healthcare system, locally, statewide and nationally,” said Moritz. “Unless we try to contribute to reducing (COVID) transmission, it will be more difficult to treat everybody.”

She urged people to be careful about spreading the disease, especially with Thanksgiving coming.

“People need to be very careful about community spread,” Moritz said. “Stay with your household only. Use virtual visits. Wear masks, wash hands, social distance and don’t gather in groups of people without masks.”

She urged people to get tested if they have COVID symptoms and isolate themselves if they test positive, contact those you contact and quarantine for 14 days.

“We’ll try to get people you contacted as soon as possible, but if you test positive, please stay home,” Moritz added.

In a Monday noon press conference, Gov. Tim Walz announced a new, free app, COVIDaware MN, that helps inform users if they’ve been exposed to the virus.

About 20 other states are using the app’s technology, Walz said.

“I plan to download it as soon as I can, experiment with it and see how it works,” Moritz said. “We’ve been assured that privacy has been addressed. It’s all voluntary and doesn’t track people. It addresses risk, sends a code, predicts distance, location and notifies others. It won’t replace anything we do now. It’s another tool we have.”

If a user tests positive for COVID-19, they can request a code from health officials that they can put into the app that alerts other app users if they’ve recently been within six feet of the infected individual. Those who are exposed are alerted and can seek testing.

Walz strongly encouraged people to put the code that uses Bluetooth technology, into their phone.