Credit: Navy Medicine via Flickr
Thursday’s COVID update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 907 new cases and a total of 24 deaths.
The recently reported deaths bring the state total to 6,343 over the course of the pandemic. Of those deaths, 63% (3,996) were residents of long-term care facilities, including 13 of the 24 reported on Thursday.
One of the deaths recently reported was a 35- to 39-year-old person from Anoka County. It is the 26th death of someone in this age group. On Wednesday, the state reported the second COVID-related death of a child under 10 in Minnesota.
As of February 9, the state reported that 599,218 people had received at least 1 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 177,239 people had completed the two doses of the vaccine needed for the maximum effect of the vaccines.
MDH has a public panel to monitor the progress of the vaccine in Minnesota, and you can view it here.
Two new variants of the coronavirus have been confirmed in Minnesota, including the first known case of Brazil’s P.1 variant in the United States. This case involves a Minnesotan who traveled to Brazil. There are 8 confirmed cases of variant B.1.1.7. The two new strains are believed to be more transmissible.
Hospitalizations
As of February 10, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 320. Of those hospitalized, 78 were in intensive care and 242 were receiving treatment outside the ICU.
Across the state, there were 174 ICU beds 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 907 positive results in Thursday’s update were a total of 43,203 tests completed, creating a daily test positivity rate of 2.1%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the Minnesota test positivity rate for the past seven days is 3.46%, making it one of the lowest rates in the country.
The World Health Organization recommends that a percentage rate of positivity (total positives divided by total tests completed) below 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: 6,871,077 (over 6,828,887)
- People tested: 3,337,790 (over 3,327,336)
- People with at least 1 vaccine injection: 599,218 (over 583,602)
- People with 2 vaccines: 177,239 (out of 168,495)
- Positive cases: 470,803 (above 469,905)
- Deaths: 6,343 – 262 of which are “probable *” (above 6,319)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 456,849 (over 456,244)
* 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.