Minnesota health officials said that early coronavirus testing results found that COVID-19 did not spread through the crowds of protesters who took to the streets following the death of George Floyd. Last week, authorities advised anybody who attended the protests to get tested within seven days, and over 3,300 people took the coronavirus test.
Officials said that following a review of about 40% of those tests, only 1.4% of them tested positive for COVID-19. According to the Twin Cities Pioneer Press, a previous analysis of more than 13,000 tests showed a positivity rate of 3.7%. The seven-day-average rate of positive tests is also 3.7%.
Kris Ehresmann, state Department of Health director of infectious disease, cautioned that it is too early to draw any conclusions from the data. He said the state hopes to continue testing protesters so they can gather enough information to determine the impact the protests have on spreading the virus.
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