2020 campaign events are quickly turning into superspreader events.
As of Monday, Minnesota officials have tied 24 COVID-19 cases to 2020 campaign events in the past month, The New York Times reports. Most of them stemmed from a Sept. 18 rally President Trump held at the Bemidji airport, including among those who protested the event.
Twelve people in the "packed and maskless crowd" at the airport rally later tested positive for COVID-19, the Times writes. In addition, four people who went to protest the event had the virus. Another three people who went to a Sept. 30 Trump rally in Duluth also contracted the virus, as did three people who went to a Sept. 24 rally featuring Vice President Mike Pence at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. One person was at both of those events.
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Meanwhile, one person who went to an event bolstering Democratic candidate Joe Biden on Sept. 16 tested positive. Another person tested positive after a Sept. 22 Biden event outside of Minneapolis. The reports come as Minnesota sees COVID-19 cases rise again, with a record 1,537 new infections reported Saturday.
Minnesota's health department reported last week that nine people who had COVID-19 reported attending the Bemidji airport rally, and that two of them had been hospitalized. Officials say there's no indication these infected people caught the virus at campaign events. They may have had the virus and been infectious with it while at the rallies, or they may have contracted it later.
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