Credit: Navy Medicine via Flickr
Wednesday’s COVID update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 669 new cases and 24 new deaths.
The newly reported deaths bring the state’s total over the course of the pandemic to 6,234. Of those deaths, 63.3% (3,946) were long-term care residents, including 14 of the 24 reported Wednesday.
Through February 1, the state reported that 458,651 people received at least 1 dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, while 122,597 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 2, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 379. Of those hospitalized, 77 were in intensive care and 302 received non-ICU treatment.
Statewide 159 manned 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 669 positive results in Wednesday’s update came from a total of 21,408 completed tests, creating a daily test positivity of 3.12%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, Minnesota’s positivity rate over the past seven days is 3.61%, 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: 6,628,961 (from 6,607,932)
- People tested: 3,276,111 (higher than 3,271,158)
- People with at least 1 vaccine shot: 458,651 as of February 1 (higher than 447,610)
- People with 2 vaccination shots: 122,597 on February 1 (higher than 116,928)
- Positive cases: 463,766 (higher than 463,132)
- Deaths: 6,234 – 254 of which “likely *” (up from 6,210)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 449,707 (from 448,595)
* 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.