Credit: Photo of the US Navy by 1st class mass communications specialist Kyle Steckler, via Flickr
Friday’s COVID update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 1,048 new cases and a total of 19 deaths.
The newly reported deaths bring the state’s total over the course of the pandemic to 6,362. Of those deaths, 63% (4,011) were long-term care residents, including 15 of the 19 reported Friday.
Through February 10, the state reported that 617,896 people received at least 1 dose of the a COVID-19 vaccine, while 189,902 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
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. During the November surge, 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 1,048 positive results in Friday’s update came from a total of 43,554 tests completed, creating a daily test positivity of 2.4%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, Minnesota’s positivity rate in the past seven days is 3.29%, 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: 6,914,135 (higher than 6,871,077)
- People tested: 3,348,043 (from 3,337,790)
- People with at least 1 vaccine shot: 617,896 (from 599,218)
- People with 2 vaccination shots: 189,902 (from 177,239)
- Positive cases: 471,851 (from 470,803)
- Deaths: 6,362 – 265 of which “likely *” (up from 6,343)
- Patients who no longer require isolation: 457,359 (from 456,849)
* 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.