EP’s COVID-19 numbers down slightly

Hennepin County’s newest city-level COVID-19 14-day data trends show a slight dip in Eden Prairie cases.

The county tracks 14-day trends in COVID cases per 10,000 residents. 

Data released Thursday tracking cases from Oct. 19-Nov. 11 showed Eden Prairie’s number at 53.2. In comparison, Hennepin County’s overall number for those two weeks is 44.1.

Last week’s data, which tracked COVID cases from Oct. 12-25, showed Eden Prairie’s number at 57.7, and Hennepin County’s overall number for those two weeks was 39.3. The latest report updated those numbers to 58.1 for Eden Prairie and 40.2 for the county.

Eden Prairie’s COVID data had increased over the last six 14-day county trend reports until this latest data.

David Johnson, epidemiology manager at Hennepin County Public Health (HCPH), stated earlier this week that he could not 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.”

For more additional information, visit the county’s COVID public dashboard.

Here’s our earlier story.