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Over 6% of Brown County residents have had COVID

BROWN COUNTY– Approximately 6.3% of Brown County’s population has had COVID-19.

In the last three days, Brown County has seen 119 new laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19. This brings the county infection total to 1,590.

The population of Brown County is a little over 25,000. This means since the COVID pandemic began nine months ago, over 6% of Brown County’s population has tested positive for the virus.

These statistics are in line with the state averages. Minnesota has reported 338,973 positive COVID cases out of 5.6 million. That is 6% of the state’s population testing positive since the start of the pandemic. Brown County and many surrounding counties are within this 6% range.

Blue Earth has recorded 4,312 positive COVID cases but with a population of 67,653 which means at least 6.4% of Blue Earth residents have had COVID.

Renville County has fewer positive cases at 986, but that represents 6.7% of the entire county. Renville also has the highest number of COVID-related deaths in the area with 30.

Redwood County has reported 1,066 cases. This is nearly 7% of the population.

In Watonwan County, 8.3% of the population has had COVID in the last nine months. Cottonwood’s COVID percentage is slightly higher with 8.6%

In terms of percentage, Nicollet County is faring better than most of the state with a little over 5% of the population contracting the virus, but the county has a higher death rate with 26 COVID deaths.

Sibley County is also below the state average with 5.6% of the population testing positive.

These averages are based on the number of people testing positive. There are likely people with COVID-19 who never test, meaning the real infection rate per county may be higher.

The averages are based on total positive cases reported since March. Most of these cases are no longer active. Brown County currently has 254 active COVID cases or 1% of the population.

These averages spread out over nine months can seem small, but the majority of positive COVID tests were only reported in the last month.

On Nov. 4 Brown County had 422 confirmed positive COVID cases. In 30 days, the number of positive infections increased by 1,168. That is an average of 39 new cases of COVID every day over the last month.

If the rate of new infections continues at 39 cases per day, Brown County will reach 2,000 by Monday, Dec. 14. By Christmas, the numbers will reach 2,409 and 2,682 cases by New Year’s Day. If these numbers remain consistent, 10.7% of Brown County’s population will have contracted COVID in 2020.

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