Credit: U.S. Pacific Fleet via Flickr
Thursday’s COVID update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 940 new cases and 14 new deaths.
The recently reported deaths bring the state total to 6,521 in the course of the pandemic.
Of the total deaths, 62.4% (4,070) were residents of long-term care facilities, including
By March 2, the state reported that 948,127 people had received at least 1 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 500,188 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.
Hospitalizations
The hospitalization figures have not been updated by the MDH since Tuesday.
As of March 1, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 243, compared to 230 on February 28.
Of those hospitalized, 57 are in intensive care (more than 47) and 186 are receiving treatment outside the ICU (out of 183).
Test rates and positivity
The 940 positive results in Thursday’s update were 68,840 completed tests, creating a daily test positivity rate of 1.36%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the Minnesota test positivity rate for the past seven days is 3.19%
The World Health Organization recommends that a percentage rate of positivity (total positives divided by total tests completed) 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: 7,465,199 (above 7,396,423)
- People tested: 3,499,299 (from 3,484,045)
- People with at least 1 vaccine injection: 948,127 (out of 928,963)
- People with 2 vaccines: 500,188 (over 484,383)
- Positive cases: 487,374 (out of 486,434)
- Deaths: 6,521 – 273 of which are “probable *” (over 6,507)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 473,728 (over 473,252)
* 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.