Credit: Noor Joonas / Central Health Laboratory via Flickr
Monday’s COVID update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 611 new cases and two deaths.
The newly reported deaths bring the state’s total over the course of the pandemic to 6,379. Of those deaths, 62.8% (4,016) were long-term care residents.
Through February 13, the state reported that 675,329 people received at least 1 dose of the a COVID-19 vaccine, while 238,104 people completed both doses of the vaccine necessary for the maximum effect of the vaccines.
MDH has a public dashboard to track vaccine progress in Minnesota, and you can watch it here.
Two new variants of the coronavirus have been confirmed in Minnesota, including the first known case of the P.1 variant in Brazil in the United States. That case involves a Minnesota man who has traveled to Brazil. There are 8 confirmed cases of the B.1.1.7 variant. Both new strains are believed to be more transferable.
Hospital admissions
Hospitalization data is not updated on weekends and had to be updated on Monday at the time of writing.
Through February 11, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 326 – a slight increase from 320 the day before. Of those hospitalized, 73 were in intensive care (versus 78) and 253 received non-ICU treatment (versus 242).
Statewide, 161 staffed IC beds were available. At its peak in November, the state had fewer than 100 staffed IC beds available. The number of available beds depends on the number of available staff, so the totals are constantly changing.
Test and positivity rates
The 611 positive results in Monday’s update came from a total of 18,165 completed tests, creating a daily test positivity of 3.36%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the test positivity rate in Minnesota in the past seven days is 3.18%, making it one of the lowest in the country.
The World Health Organization recommends that a positive rate (total positives divided by total tests completed) of less than 5% for at least two weeks is required to safely reopen the economy. That 5% threshold is based on the total number of positives divided by the total number of tests.
Coronavirus in Minnesota in numbers
- Total number of tests: 6,990,085 (from 6,971,879)
- People tested: 3,371,276 (from 3,365,599)
- People with at least 1 vaccine shot: 675,329 (from 661,187)
- People with 2 vaccination shots: 238,104 (from 227,551)
- Positive cases: 474,169 (higher than 473,567)
- Deaths: 6,378 – 265 of them are “likely *” (compared to 6,376)
- Patients who no longer require isolation: 460,537 (from 459,525)
* Probable deaths are patients who died after a positive test using the COVID-19 antigen test, which is believed to be less accurate than the more common PCR test.