Credit: US Pacific Fleet via Flickr
Monday’s COVID update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 564 new cases and three new deaths.
The newly reported deaths bring the state’s total over the course of the pandemic to 6,302. Of those deaths, 63% (3,972) were long-term care residents, including one of three reported Monday.
Through February 6, the state reported that 556,482 people received at least 1 dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, while 158,763 people completed both doses of the vaccine necessary for the full 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 concerns a minnezotan who recently 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 7, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 330. Of those hospitalized, 80 were in intensive care and 250 received non-ICU treatment.
Statewide there were 176 staffed IC beds 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 564 positive results in Monday’s update were from a total of 18,567 tests completed, creating a daily test positivity of 3.03%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the positivity rate in Minnesota in the past seven days is 3.53%, 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: 6,798,547 (from 6,780,024)
- People tested: 3,321,315 (from 3,314,427)
- People with at least 1 vaccine shot: 556,482 (from 554,102)
- People with 2 vaccination shots: 158,763 (from 156,638)
- Positive cases: 468,682 (higher than 468,118)
- Deaths: 6,302 – 261 of which “likely *” (up from 6,299)
- Patients who no longer require isolation: 454,290 (from 453,225)
* 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.