Minnesota extends COVID-19 state of emergency for 13th time

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota officials extended the peacetime emergency for another 30 days in order to boost the state’s response to more infectious variants of the COVID-19 virus.

The five Democratic statewide officials who make up the Minnesota Executive Council voted unanimously Wednesday for the extension. It’s the 13th time the state has extended the emergency since last March, when the coronavirus was first detected in Minnesota. The federal government and 46 other states remain under emergency orders. The Star Tribune reports that it is the longest time Minnesota has been in a state of emergency since World War II.

The COVID Tracking Project says Minnesota ranks fifth in the country for new cases per capita in the last two weeks.