Credit: Arkansas National Guard via Flickr
Monday’s COVID-19 update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 1,292 new cases and six new deaths.
The new deaths raise the state’s death toll to 7,026 over the course of the pandemic. Of the total deaths, 61.7% (4,336) were long-term care residents.
Through April 17, the state reported that 2,292,756 people have received at least 1 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 1,625,800 people have completed their vaccine series.
Fifty-two percent of minnesotans ages 16 and older received at least one injection, while 85% of the population 65 and older had at least one dose of a vaccine. In all, 41% of the state’s population has had at least one dose.
MDH has a public dashboard to track vaccine progress in Minnesota, and you can watch it here.
Hospital admissions
Through April 17, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 686, down from 671 reported Friday.
Of those hospitalized, 171 people were in intensive care (versus 165 reported Friday) and 515 received non-ICU treatment (versus 506).
Here’s how Minnesota hospital admissions have progressed since March 7.
- March 7: 223 (177 non-ICU, 46 ICU)
- March 13: 255 (194 non-ICU, 61 ICU)
- March 20: 324 (246 non-ICU, 78 ICU)
- March 27: 356 (264 non-ICU, 92 ICU)
- Apr. 2: 439 (337 non-ICU, 112 ICU)
- Apr. 8: 595 (461 non-ICU, 134 ICU)
- Apr. 14: 699 (531 non-ICU, 168 ICU)
- Apr. 17: 686 (515 non-ICU, 171 ICU)
Test and positivity rates
The 1,292 positive results in Monday’s update were from 23,297 tests completed, creating a test positivity rate of 5.54%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the positivity rate in Minnesota in the past seven days is 7.01%.
The World Health Organization recommends that a positive rate (total number of 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: 8,866,081 (higher than 8,842,898)
- People tested: 3,911,831 (from 3,902,960)
- People with at least 1 vaccine shot: 2,292,756 (from 2,274,426)
- People who have completed. vaccine series: 1,625,800 (was 1,600,887)
- Positive cases: 557,665 (from 556,381)
- Deaths: 7,026 – 386 of which “likely *” (up from 7,020)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 532,563 (from 530,121)
* 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.