Day Before Homecoming, Blooming Prairie District Cancels Parade, Football Game Over COVID-19 Concerns
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Just a day before a southern Minnesota high school's homecoming, district officials announced that the event and related football game were canceled due to COVID-19 concerns.
Blooming Prairie Public Schools posted on its Facebook page Thursday that Friday's homecoming parade and football game against Hayfield were both canceled. The Blooming Prairie Awesome Blossoms are the defending state champions for Class A football.
Superintendent Christopher Staloch said in a statement to WCCO-TV that several members of the district have recently had to quarantine in response to the pandemic. "This led us to those decisions," he said.
Minnesota is currently experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases. On just Thursday, the state set a daily record for new cases, with health officials adding more than 2,800 infections to the tally in just 24 hours.
Additionally, there are more people with COVID-19 in state hospitals now than in any other point during the pandemic. Health officials expect the numbers for daily new cases to continue to rise.