GET ME REWRITE: Trumpiest counties in Minnesota are sickest with the delta variant virus

 

New York Times

No surprise that a St. Cloud hospital needs medical reinforcements.

New York Times (white boxes added)

Star-Tribune, 11/23/2021

Federal medical teams this week are starting to help at Hennepin Healthcare's HCMC in Minneapolis and will soon arrive at CentraCare's St. Cloud Hospital. New facilities are creating space so hospitals can discharge patients to the next level of care, Walz said, and Minnesota National Guard members are being trained to support long-term care providers. 

But even with those efforts, the governor said during a news conference at HCMC that the state faces a critical time in the coming weeks.

Original 10/13/2021 post starts here.

59% of Minnesota residents are fully vaccinated.  The10 counties listed in the first bar graph are well below this percentage.  Todd County is the worst offender at 36%, followed by Clearwater County at 37%.

New York Times (Covid, election)

6 of 10 of Minnesota's counties with the lowest number of Covid cases per 100,000 residents voted for Biden.  (Only 11 of the state's 87 counties did so.  60% of Minnesota population lives in the Twin Cities metro area, which includes 4 of the counties listed in the bar graph below: Hennepin, Ramsey, Washington, and Dakota.)

Mapped

Minnesota 7-day average of new Covid cases is as high as it's been since December 15, 2020.