According to the New York Times on December 18, 2020, at least 128,000 people from the U.S. have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. It is likely that this number is less than the actual number of people who have received the first dose of the vaccine because many states haven’t given the data. Officials from Minnesota have said that 7,000 doses of the vaccine arrived in Minnesota by December 17 with more doses expected to arrive in the near future. The New York Times does not know how many of these doses have been given to people thus far. 

In a press conference on Wednesday, December 16, Governor Walz announced that starting December 18, winter sports would be able to resume starting January 4, 2021. This is a loosening of restrictions after they were put in place in late November. There are still restrictions in place on indoor dinning, wedding receptions, parties, indoor entertainment venues, and public pools.

Students and parents of Cannon Falls High School received an email from Principal Hodges on December 18 to fill out a survey about a possible switch to a learning model that is in person for one cohort 2 days a week and the other cohort the next 2 days. This would potentially go into effect starting at the beginning of the second semester. Results will be announced on January 8 if voted positively by parents and students. As of December 18, there have been a total of 12 positive cases of COVID-19 amongst the staff and 20 positive cases amongst the students since September 8. From December 12 to December 18, there were 2 staff and 13 students that have had close contact with someone who has tested positive and is quarantining at home.

In Goodhue County on December 18, there were 118 active cases of COVID-19. 46 of those cases were hospitalized. In total, there have been 37 COVID deaths in Goodhue County. These deaths are out of a total of 2,735 confirmed positive cases and 18 probable cases from antibody tests. 

On December 18 alone, Minnesota saw 2,550 confirmed positive and 222 probable newly reported cases of COVID-19. There were 57 newly reported deaths on December 18 as well. These numbers are out of a total of 394,635 cases and 4,780 deaths. 20,468 people have been hospitalized from COVID and 4,392 of those were admitted into the ICU (Intensive Care Unit).

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) from December 12 to December 19, there were 1,672,460 new cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. There were 18,114 deaths in that timeframe as well. In total, there have been 17,391,270 positive cases and 312,636 deaths reported to the CDC since January 21.