The recent daily COVID-19 reports by the Minnesota Department of Health are not encouraging for the state or southwest Minnesota.

The number of positive cases in Lyon County are now well over 4,000 since Jan. 20, 2020. Twenty-nine new positive cases were reported on Monday.

The COVID patients are filling hospitals across the state.

It is discouraging that in the second year of the COVID pandemic, we are dealing with numbers of cases that rival the height of last year, and this at a time when we have the means to protect ourselves. Vaccinations started last December, and by April, over 5,000 doses a month were being given in the county. That monthly number has dropped to a little over a thousand in August and September, and 964 so far this month. In the county, 12,315 people are fully vaccinated. Almost 78% of the population over 18 is vaccinated, but that number isn’t going up.

Getting vaccinated is the best way for people to protect themselves and others from the COVID-19 virus. And yet doses are sitting unused. It is frustrating.