More than 200 COVID-19 cases linked to Minnesota school staff or attendees since August

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - More than 200 COVID-19 cases since August have been linked to school employees or those attending school, according to Minnesota Department of Health Infectious Disease Director Kris Ehresmann. The update came Tuesday as many students statewide returned for their first day of school.

Since Aug. 1, there have been 236 coronavirus cases associated with school staff or an attendee, said Ehresmann. Of that amount, 81 percent of the cases were staff. State officials say these numbers largely reflect staff preparation time, but included some summer school cases.

"Most of the situations in which we were seeing COVID had just a single individual case," said Ehresmann.

State officials say they will be closely monitoring cases at school districts and charter schools, which will eventually be shared on a public dashboard.

There will also be a learning model portal to provide information where each district and charter school stands on whether it is holding distance learning only, in-person learning or a hybrid of the two. So far, about 63 percent of reporting districts are using a hybrid model, according to Minnesota Department of Education officials.