An ebb and flow pattern is in play for the current COVID-19 wave across the Bonanza Valley area. This is the third wave of spread since it all began either in early 2020 or late in 2019.
The first one measurable wave hit the local zip codes of Belgrade, Brooten and Elrosa around mid to late October and into November last fall. The second came in March and April of this spring. Now we're in the third one, and fortunately it's not causing a great deal of local collateral damage. That statement does not mean that the wave is to be ignored.
The new numbers: the new COVID-19 case number posted today by the MN Department of Health for the zip code areas of Belgrade, Brooten and Elrosa is a 23. This marks a slight increase from last week's number of 19. The current high number for the current wave is a 32, which was the number posted two weeks ago on September 2.
One lengthy streak came to an end, as the Elrosa zip code area of 56312 posted the number 7. That's the highest one-week total Elrosa has had since January 2020. Between December 16, 2020 and this week, the city of Elrosa has posted just one new COVID-19 case. Their cumulative total since January 2020 is now 25 in a population of approximately 230 people.
The Brooten 56316 zip code posted a large decline by over half, as the new case number posted here was a 4. That's down from 9 last week.
In Belgrade 56312, they had a slight increase to post a number 12 this week, which is up slightly from last week's number of 10. This article is being updated on Thursday afternoon, so by 4 p.m. it will include much more data. It's very important to remember the population of each zip code. For example, Willmar's new number this week was 52, and last week's number was 49. The zip code area of 56201 includes over 23,000 people. On the other end of the spectrum are zip code areas such as Sunburg 56289, which has has about 700 people.
Area zip code increases from September 9 to September 16, with the number in parentheses representing the number of new cases posted by the MDH a week ago on September 9; this can help show a better snapshot in time of case count growth for our area:
Willmar 56201 - 52 new cases (49)
Benson 56215 - 9 new cases (6)
Clara City 56222 - 11 new cases (5)
Kandiyohi 56251 - 9 new cases (4)
Kerkhoven 56252 - 4 new cases (zero)
Maynard 56260 - NO new cases (zero)
Morris 56267 - 41 new cases (14)
Murdock 56271 - 1 new case (1)
New London 56273 - 21 new cases (10)
Pennock 56279 - 1 new case (1)
Raymond 56282 - 6 new cases (zero)
Spicer 56288 - 13 new cases (15)
Sunburg 56289 - 4 new cases (2)
Belgrade 56312 - 12 new cases (10) with a new, cumulative total of 388 new cases since January 2020
Brooten 56316 - 4 new cases (9) with a new, cumulative total of 191 cases since January 2020
Alexandria 56308 - 87 new cases (44)
Elrosa 56325 - 7 new cases (zero) with a new, cumulative total of 25 cases since January 2020
Glenwood 56334 - 14 new cases (14)
Greenwald 56335 - 1 new case (none)
Melrose 56352 - 15 new cases 10)
Osakis 56360 - 19 new cases (22)
Paynesville 56362 - 6 new cases (5)
St. Martin 56376 - 1 new case (none)
Sauk Centre 56378 - 30 new cases (16)
Starbuck 56381 - 10 new cases (5)
Villard 56385 - 4 new cases (2)
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