ST. PAUL (LEARFIELD) – Governor Tim Walz Wednesday announced an agreement to further Minnesota’s COVID-19 testing ability.
“The capacity we’re announcing today to test 20,000 Minnesotans per day the increased testing and tracing will improve our control of the pandemic and help us think about those strategies to start re-opening our society,” said the governor during a press conference.
Walz added that its not a pass to mean that everything is back to normal.
Leaders from the Mayo Clinic, University of Minnesota and other health systems around the state were on hand for the announcement.
Walz says the strategy is a pay off on a promise that Minnesota would make a difference in this crisis.
“This is not a state that is going to just get through COVID-19, this is a state that is going to lead this nation and the world out of this,” said Walz. “The plan that we put a place should allow Minnesota to be testing at a rate greater than any place else in the country and potentially the world.”
To this point just less than 50-thousand tests have been completed in the state since late January. Private, non-state run labs have accounted for more than 80-percent of those.
