This year overall, the state fair attendance was down compared to other years at the Great Minnesota Get-Together. The attendance could be due to people being cautious about COVID, it could have been the first three days the weather was less than optimal for fair goers and it could have been people just being cautious because of the violence that has been fairly prevalent in the Twin Cities area.  Whatever the reason, attendance was down comparted to other years.

Personally, I went to the fair, and it thought it was kind of nice not having the crazy crowds that I have experienced other years.  The lines were shorter, the crowding- bumping into people everywhere, the wait times, all less at this year's fair and I was there for it.  It was kind of nice.

With all of that said, attendance was still around 1.5 million.  And so far, there have been about 153 cases that have been linked directly to the Minnesota State Fair.  That doesn't seem that high considering how many people attended the fair.  But, with that said, a story on Bring Me The News reports that the MHD thinks that that's a low number and not necessarily accurate.

"We think that those numbers are a significant underestimate," said State Epidemiologist Dr. Ruth Lynfield. She and MDH Commissioner say contact tracing and case investigations have hit a bit of a wall, both due to too few contact tracers to keep up with the high number of cases, or people not answering calls. "We are not reaching most people and many people are not disclosing everywhere they've been," said Lynfield. "It is raining COVID and we need to do what we can to decrease transmission."

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In my own personal opinion you have to wonder if they are trying to make it seem like there were more cases directly linked to the fair than there were reported?  Would this benefit them?  Does it matter where it was from?  There were about 3000 people who got the COVID vaccine at the fair.  You are asking people to come to the fair to get the vaccination, and you are also telling people who aren't vaccinated to think about not going to the fair.  There seems to be mixed messages here.  This is just my opinion.

If you are finding that there were 153 cases directly linked to the Minnesota State Fair, can't we take that as a win?  Or should be all err on the side of caution because there are so many cases being detected recently that they must be coming from the fair attendance?

The Minnesota Department of Health through Bring Me the News also gave these stats:

This is out of the 3.1 million Minnesotans who have been fully vaccinated.

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