With many Minnesotans choosing to protest this weekend, cases of COVID-19 are expected to rise dramatically in the coming days. There have been 54 new deaths from COVID-19 in Minnesota this weekend, bringing the total deaths to 1,050.

There are 25,208 cases recorded so far. 10.8% of those cases reported are health care workers, making up 2,725 positive tests.

Testing has been increasing rapidly. There have been 255,592 tests administered so far for COVID-19, with over 20,000 tests administered over the weekend.

3,086 people have been hospitalized so far from COVID-19, with 56 hospitalized yesterday. As of today, 549 are currently hospitalized. There are 253 people currently hospitalized in the ICU. 19,441 have been released from isolation so far, meaning they no longer need to be self-isolating. This is a rise of over 2,500 over the weekend.

There are now 71 cases in Crow Wing County, with seven additional cases added over the weekend. There has been two deaths in Crow Wing County. In Itasca County, there have been 55 cases reported with 10 deaths, with one of those deaths happening this weekend. There have been 14 cases in Cass County and two deaths reported.

There have been 15 cases reported in Beltrami County, with one new case reported over the weekend. No deaths have been reported.

There have been 10 cases in Wadena County, and fewer than 10 in Koochiching, Hubbard, and Clearwater Counties, with no deaths reported in any of them.

Todd County’s number of cases reported has been increasing rapidly, as there have now been 319 cases reported with 18 new reported cases over the weekend. In the last two weeks, total cases jumped from 60 to 319.

By — Betsy Melin