The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant and lasting impact on our residents, communities and economy. These impacts have disproportionately affected individuals with less education, low income, youth, women and diverse communities. Ramsey County deployed special, federal funding to close gaps that would not have been possible through existing programs or funding.

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Hospitalization Surveillance Network (COVID-NET) is designed to conduct population-based surveillance for laboratory-confirmed COVID-19-associated hospitalizations among children and adults. COVID-NET, along with the Respiratory Syncytial Virus Hospitalization Surveillance Network (RSV-NET) and the Influenza Hospitalization Surveillance Network (FluSurv-NET), comprise the Respiratory Virus Hospitalization Surveillance Network (RESP-NET). The RESP-NET platforms have overlapping surveillance areas and use similar methods to collect data. COVID-NET is CDC’s source for important data on rates of hospitalizations associated with COVID-19. Hospitalization rates show how many people in the surveillance area are hospitalized with COVID-19, compared to the total number of people residing in that area.