Thirty-eight new COVID-19 cases diagnosed in Winona County

By Rachel Mergen, August 27, 2020

Winona County hit a new one-day high Thursday with 38 COVID-19 confirmed cases announced by the Minnesota Department of Health. Most of these cases are people between 18 and 24 years old, while five are older than 40 years old.

... Classes started at Winona State University, Minnesota State College Southeast and Saint Mary’s University this week, which brought back to the city thousands of students. ... As for Minnesota State College Southeast, nobody on campus so far this fall semester has tested positive for COVID-19, college officials said Thursday.

One of the college’s community members has tested positive, but has not been on campus and is completely remote. That individual is now self-isolating.

No mass testing has occurred on the Southeast campus.

“We will continue to follow all of our established safety precautions and protocols, including social distancing, mask requirement and a required self-screening assessment prior to entering campus. Our COVID-19 team has been working directly to provide guidance to individuals in our college community who may exhibit symptoms or come into contact with others who have COVID-19,” according to an email sent Thursday by Katryn Conlin, communications director for the college.

“Our primary goal is to keep our campuses safe and limit the spread of COVID-19. We are constantly monitoring the situation on both our Red Wing and Winona campuses, and are prepared to pivot if it becomes necessary. We will continue to work to ensure that students are able to continue their educations. Our instructors are prepared to flex course delivery methods as needed, either on a course-by-course basis or campus-wide basis, depending on the particular situation,” the email said.  Read the full story