B-B-E zip codes post the number 24

We saw a major decline in new COVID-19 case counts for the zip codes (city and rural areas) of Brooten, Belgrade and Elrosa between the Minnesota Department of Health December 16 report and their December 23 report. The decline was approximately by 44 percent.

It has to be pointed out that the Alexandria public school district has forced masking of their younger school children since the start of the 2021-2022 school year. Despite their population being similar as the population of the Willmar 56201 zip code (about 23,000 people), the Alexandria zip codes have had more COVID-19 cases in that time period. The Willmar 56201 zip code has not seen a huge spike in COVID-19 cases even though they do not force masking on their school children. Let that sink in for a moment.

Here's the new case count for new cases reported among the approximately 4,300 men, women and children who live in the zip code areas of :

Belgrade 56312: 14 new cases (27 new last week)

Brooten 56316: 8 new cases (14 new last week)

Elrosa 56325: 2 new cases (2 new last week)

TOTAL new cases between December 16 and December 22: 24 new cases (43 last week and 32 for the December 9 report).

Other area zip code figures:

New London 56273: 13 new cases (21 new last week)

Glenwood 56334: 16 new cases (63 new last week)

Spicer 56288: 9 new cases (13 new last week)

Sauk Centre 56378: 33 new cases (35 new last week)

Lowry 56349: 4 new cases (7 new last week)

Melrose 56352: 35 new cases (34 new last week)

Osakis 56360: 12 new cases (17 new last week)

Paynesville 56362: 18 new cases (23 new last week)

Morris 56267: 30 new cases (48 new last week)

Murdock 56271: 1 new case (6 new last week)

Pennock 56279: 1 new case (5 new last week)

Sunburg 56289: 3 new cases (5 new last week)

Willmar 56201: 67 new cases (102 last week)

Benson 56215: 5 new cases (5 new last week)

Additional area zip codes will be added on Friday night. We can see a dramatic slowdown of COVID-19 cases across the area over the past two weeks. In some cases, the drop in cases is stunning.