Minnesota reaches Governor's goal of testing more than 20,000 COVID-19 tests per day
Gov. Tim Walz announces the state has reached its COVID-19 testing goal.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Gov. Tim Walz and representatives from the Department of Health, the University of Minnesota and the Mayo Clinic announced a COVID-19 testing milestone in Minnesota during a news conference Monday, saying the state can now test more than 20,000 people for the coronavirus each day.
More than half a million Minnesotans have been tested, and the state is expected to eclipse 600,000 tests by the end of the day Monday. This helps reach the Governor's goal of testing more than 10 percent of the state's population.
"Robust testing is critical to monitoring the spread of COVID-19," said Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan. "While there is still work to do to remove obstacles to testing for all Minnesotans, we have built a strong and collaborative statewide testing program that will help us keep all Minnesotans safe."
To date, the state has logged 592,955 tests from its own labs and partnerships with the University of Minnesota, the Mayo Clinic and other health systems. More than 265 health care systems are benefitting from the added testing.
"I'm very proud of the Mayo Clinic team who worked tirelessly to apply our global reference laboratory capabilities to ensure every Minnesotan can get COVID-19 testing when and where they need it," said William Morice, of the Mayo Clinic.
Similarly, the University of Minnesota transformed its research labs into COVID-19 testing facilities.
"I'm grateful to my faculty colleagues who quickly shifted their focus to develop the diagnostic tests so critical to managing our way through this health crisis," said Tim Schacker, vice dean for research at the University of Minnesota.