The Bonanza Valley area and the Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa local area continues to see little, if any, COVID-19 activity in the heart of the winter and traditional influenza season. For the local zip code areas of Belgrade, Brooten and Elrosa, the weekly Minnesota Department of Health COVID-19 report showed just four new cases reported for the period of February 11 to February 17: Belgrade (4), Brooten (0) and Elrosa (0). The village proper of Elrosa has now gone at least eight weeks with no COVID cases. Cumulatively since January of 2020, the MDH has reported a total of 238 COVID-19 cases in the Belgrade zip code plus 121 in the Brooten zip code and 17 in the Elrosa zip code. The numbers below include the cumulative case totals dating back to January 2020, as reported by the MDH.

Area zip code COVID-19 numbers in the February 18 MDH report:

Willmar 56201 - 28 new cases for a total of 3,593;

Benson 56215 - zero new cases for a total of 472;

Kerkhoven 56252 - zero new cases for a total of 144;

Murdock 56271 - zero new cases for a total of 96;

New London 56273 - two new cases for a total of 570;

Pennock 56279 - one new case for a total of 149;

Spicer 56288 - one new case for a total of 445;

Sunburg 56289 - no new cases for a total of 77;

Alexandria 56308 - 16 new cases for a total of 2,689;

Glenwood 56334 - 14 new cases for a total of 444;

Starbuck 56381 - one new case for a total of 166;

Sauk Centre 56378 - four new cases for a total of 894;

Greenwald 56335 - no new cases for a total of 23;

Melrose 56352 - eight new cases for a total of 782;

Paynesville 56362 - six new cases for a total of 720;

St. Martin 56376 - no new cases for a total of 49;

Roscoe 56371 - no new cases for a total of 13;

Osakis 56360 - four new cases for a total of 420;

Villard 56386 - one new case for a total of 47;

Kandiyohi 56251 - no new cases for a total of 133;

Freeport 56331 - four new cases for a total of 197.

More good news: for the February 20 daily report, the MDH showed 884 new cases (probable included) on a testing volume of 32,110 tests. This equates to just a 2.75 percent positive rate, well below the five percent "caution" threshhold metric.