Vice President Mike Pence, who was chosen to lead the nation’s response to the coronavirus, returns to Minnesota to a different world.
When Pence came to Maplewood in early March to talk with 3M leaders about protective face mask production, Minnesota had yet to record a laboratory-confirmed coronavirus case.
That same week, more than 100,000 people crowded into the Xcel Energy Center and Mariucci Arena for the boy’s hockey state tournament.
Days later, everything changed.
Pence's Tuesday trip to Rochester is a visit to the Mayo Clinic, where a new coronavirus testing initiative called a “moonshot” by Gov. Walz is well underway.
“The collaborative effort is probably the most exciting and appropriate things we’re doing,” said Dr. David Hilden on the WCCO Morning News with Dave Lee.
“I think it’s possible that we could in Minnesota set an example on how to do testing,” Hilden said.
US Sen. Amy Klobuchar is hopeful that’ll happen. She’s been an advocate for a national testing strategy.
“Testing is the key to reopening (the economy),” Sen. Klobuchar told WCCO radio. “Proud of what we’ve done in Minnesota; lucky we have Mayo and the University, so we’re ahead of the curve. But we need to see that nationally.”
Dr. Hilden said by increasing the number of tests, Minnesota will find out just how far coronavirus has spread.
“The number of cases in Minnesota has been relatively low,” he said. “But it is also true that we are not testing as many people as in other states.
As of Tuesday, 63,829 coronavirus tests have been completed at state and private health care laboratories, with 4,181 patients confirmed to have COVID-19.
That's after a high of 365 new cases were reported between Monday and Tuesday.
The numbers include 1,912 recoveries, and 301 fatal cases.
“The evidence will come out when we start to really ramp up testing, when we’re doing tens of thousands of tests every day,” said Dr. Hilden.
“We have to be honest. The cases continue to rise.”