Credit: Navy Medicine via Flickr
Thursday’s COVID update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 1,410 new cases and 17 new deaths.
The newly reported deaths bring the state’s total to 6,251 during the pandemic. Of those deaths (63.2%) were 3,955 long-term care residents, including 9 of the 17 reported Thursday.
Through February 2, the state reported that 475,200 people received at least 1 dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, while 128,694 people completed both doses of 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 variant P.1 in Brazil in the United States. That case concerns a Minnesota note 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 3, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 369. Of those admitted to hospital, 82 were in intensive care and 287 were undergoing non-ICU treatment.
Statewide, 145 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 1,410 positive results in Thursday’s update were from a total of 50,330 tests completed, creating a daily test positivity of 2.8%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, Minnesota’s positivity rate in the past seven days is 3.48%, 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: 6,679,181 (up from 6,628,961)
- People tested: 3,288,834 (higher than 3,276,111)
- People with at least 1 vaccine shot: 475,200 as of February 2 (higher than 458,651)
- People with 2 vaccination shots: 128,694 as of February 2 (higher than 122,597)
- Positive cases: 465,176 (higher than 463,766)
- Deaths: 6,251 – 254 of which “likely *” (up from 6,234)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 450,383 (from 449,707)
* 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.