Eden Prairie’s COVID-19 cases have shown a noticeable spike in October.
Hennepin County tracks 14-day trends in COVID cases per 10,000 residents.
Last week’s data, which tracked COVID cases from Oct. 12-25, showed Eden Prairie’s number at 57.7. Hennepin County’s overall number for those two weeks is 39.3.
Eden Prairie’s COVID data has increased over the last six 14-day county trend reports.
It was 38.2 for Sept. 7-20; 38.3 for Sept. 14-27; 41.0 for Sept. 21-Oct. 4; 45.9 for Sept. 28-Oct. 11; and 55.6 for Oct. 5-18.
The newest county 14-day trend data report will be available on Nov. 11.
In a review of COVID surveillance data, David Johnson, epidemiology manager at Hennepin County Public Health (HCPH), stated that he cannot provide an exact reason why case rates remain higher in Eden Prairie compared to the rest of the county.
However, Johnson said that the ZIP code 55347 has a case rate nearly two times higher than the other ZIP codes in the city for the most recent two-week period.
Of the four ZIP codes in Eden Prairie, 55347 is home to its most residents (30,744, according to 2016 figures).
“It does not appear that the higher case rates are due to a specific exposure setting, but rather, that cases have been increasing from known and unknown sources across the community,” he said. “Otherwise, there was no evidence of concerning epidemiological trends. At this point, we hypothesize the higher rate is attributable to natural variation in infectious disease rates.”
Johnson stated that HCPH will continue to monitor COVID rates by demographic variables. If a concerning increase can be attributed to an identifiable reason, he added that HCPH works with the Minnesota Department of Health to intervene when possible.
HCPH encourages all eligible people (everyone age 5 and up) to get fully vaccinated against COVID and to continue to practice COVID prevention steps, including masking, hand washing, physical distancing, staying home when sick, and testing as appropriate.
For more additional information, visit the county’s COVID public dashboard.