St. Luke’s and Essentia Health Give Update on Coronavirus

DULUTH, Minn.– Essentia Health and St. Luke’s are talking about the impacts of the Coronavirus in Duluth and what people in the area can prepare for what’s ahead.

Both hospitals have been meeting with the governor and Minnesota Department of Health about testing and which healthcare facilities in Minnesota are able to test more people.

Testing is now available on site at the hospitals but supplies are still limited around the state for testing equipment as more facilities are trying to test for Coronavirus.

We can test but we wish we had lot more capacity to test,” said Dr. Nicholas Van Deelen, Chief Medical Officer at St. Luke’s.

The two health care providers are now expecting Coronavirus cases to surge in May or June and peak around June or July.

“We change on a weekly basis we learn more about what’s going on in Minnesota and we learn from other states. We feed that data into the models and the models change slightly,” Dr. Jon Pryor, President of Essentia Health’s East Market.

One of the biggest questions being debated right now is when does the state’s economy open back up? Hospital officials says the time is not now and more testing needs to be done.

“As we get more testing capacity, we can identify the individuals who really need to be kept away from other folks. I think we may be able to do target openings of the economy and I think that would be really important and impactful but we are not ready to open up everything,” said Van Deelen. “I’m afraid we’ll experience a significant increase in disease if we do that.”

Both St. Luke’s and Essentia are offering virtual visits and St. Luke’s is offering a triage phone line for people with concerns about coronavirus.