A Fifth of Comp Claims Are Now COVID-Related — and Rising

A fifth of all workers' compensation claims filed in Minnesota this year are for COVID-19 illnesses, a number that a safety expert called surprisingly high. Minnesota state agencies this week posted a Workplace Safety Dashboard report showing workers filed 5,387 COVID-related claims since the pandemic began. That's out of 26,082 total workers' compensation claims filed from January through September. More recent data provided by the state Department of Labor and Industry show that the number of virus claims has increased sharply in the last month: Through Oct. 21, anoth...