Here’s the Minnesota COVID-19 update for Saturday, January 16th

vaccine, greed — Credit: April Ellers, Minneapolis VA Health Care System

The Minnesota Department of Health’s COVID Saturday update includes 37 new deaths and more than 1,400 new cases.

Recently reported deaths bring the state total to 5,887 during the course of the pandemic, of which (63.8%) (3,756) were residents of long-term care facilities, including 22 of the 37 reported on Saturday.

Minnesota last Saturday confirmed the first five cases of the UK-based mutant variant of COVID-19, with residents in four Twin Cities counties testing positive for B.1.1.7. variant after falling ill between 16 and 31 December.

No other cases of the new strain have been confirmed, but health officials believe the variant is widely circulating in Minnesota.

Meanwhile, the state reported that by January 13, 174,110 people had received at least 1 dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, while 32,131 people had completed the two doses of the vaccine needed for the full effect of the vaccines.

The health department has launched a public panel to track the distribution of vaccines across Minnesota, and you can view it here.

Hospitalizations

Hospitalization data is not updated on weekends.

As of January 14, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 612, which is the lowest number of COVID admissions reported since October 25 (584).

Of those hospitalized, 125 (against 131 the day before) were in intensive care and 487 (against 514) were receiving treatment outside the ICU.

Across the state, 148 ICU beds were available. During the November surge, the state had less than 100 ICU beds available. The number of beds available depends on the number of employees available, so the totals change constantly.

Test rates and positivity

The 1,485 positive results in Saturday’s update were a total of 30,774 tests completed, creating a daily test positivity rate of 4.82%.

According to Johns Hopkins University, the Minnesota test positivity rate for the past seven days is 5.52%.

The World Health Organization recommends that a percentage rate of positivity (total positives divided by the total of completed tests) of less than 5% for at least two weeks is necessary to reopen the economy safely. This limit of 5% is based on the total of positives divided by the total of tests.

Coronavirus in Minnesota in numbers

Total tests: 6,121,001 (above 6,090,114)
People tested: 3,134,557 (above 3,124,903)
Positive cases: 445,047 (over 443,562)
Deaths: 5,887 – 214 of which are “probable *” (above 5,850)
Patients who no longer need isolation: 425,253 (over 422,289)

* Probable deaths are patients who died after a positive test using the COVID-19 antigen test, which is considered less accurate than the most common PCR test.

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