Minnesota Sees Rise In Covid-19 Outbreaks Linked to Trump’s Campaign Events

Minnesota is reporting three Covid-19 outbreaks related to Trump campaign events held in September.

The Minnesota Department of Health said in an email to CNN that at least 23 cases have been traced to outbreaks occurring at rally events in Bemidji on Sept 18, a speech held by Vice President Mike Pence in Minneapolis on Sept. 24, and another rally held by Donald Trump in Duluth on Sept. 30.

A CNN producer who attended Trump’s Bemidji rally said that at least 2,000 people were in attendance. Based on the contract tracing by the state department of health there were at least 16 cases and two hospitalizations identified among attendees.

According to Johns Hopkins University, in the month proceeding the rally the seven day average of new cases in Beltrami County were 2.85 new cases a day. On the day of the rally, cases climbed to three new cases a day, but four weeks later the average rate of new cases in the county increased to an average of 14.57 new cases a day.

The state department of health traced three attendees with Covid-19 infections to the “Cops for Trump” listening event at the InterContinental Hotel in Minneapolis-St. Paul on Sept 24, held by Pence and Ivanka Trump.

A month before the event, the seven-day average was just under 180 new cases in Hennepin County and dropped to an average of 169 new cases on the day of Mike Pence’s visit. According to John Hopkins, a month later on Oct 24, the daily new cases were over 266 a day.

The increase in cases coincides with an overall upward trend of new cases in the state of Minnesota that started Sept. 10.

On Sept 18, the state’s average number of new cases was 727 and it had more than doubled a month later to 1,506 new cases a day. The on Oct 16, the state set a record number of new cases a day with 2,290 cases.

Minnesota Department of Health traced another four cases to a rally Donald Trump held on Sept 30 in Duluth.

Minnesota defines an outbreak as “two or more cases of illness related by time and place in which an epidemiologic investigation suggests either person-to-person transmission occurred” or some other vehicle, such as contaminated water, is implicated.