Credit: The National Guard via Flickr
Wednesday’s COVID update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 783 new cases and 10 deaths.
The newly reported deaths bring the state’s total to 6,390 over the course of the pandemic. Of those deaths, 62.8% (4,019) were long-term care residents, including three of 10 reported Wednesday.
Through February 14, the state reported that 695,629 people received at least 1 dose of the a COVID-19 vaccine, while 246,431 people completed both doses of 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 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 16, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 314 – the lowest number since September 24. Of those hospitalized, 54 were in intensive care and 260 received non-ICU treatment.
Statewide there were 179 manned IC beds available. During the November peak, 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 783 positive results in Wednesday’s update came from a total of 22,160 completed tests, creating a daily test positivity of 3.53%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the Minnesota positivity rate in the past seven days is 3.17%. It’s about the same percentage that Minnesota had in September, before a rise in the number of cases pushed the rate above 15% in November.
Credit: Johns Hopkins University
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: 7,021,209 (from 6,999,322)
- People tested: 3,378,669 (from 3,373,632)
- People with at least 1 vaccine shot: 695,629 (versus 686,210)
- People with 2 vaccination shots: 246,431 (from 240,027)
- Positive cases: 475,379 (from 474,621)
- Deaths: 6,390 – 266 of them are “likely *” (instead of 6,380)
- Patients who no longer require isolation: 462,502 (from 461,406)
* 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.