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Friday’s Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) COVID update includes 1,001 new cases and eight deaths.
The recently reported deaths bring the state total to 6,412 during the course of the pandemic. Of these deaths, 62.8% (4,029) were resident in long-term care facilities, including two of the eight reported on Friday.
As of February 16, the state reported that 728,081 people had received at least 1 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 286,543 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 one that was the first known case of the Brazil 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 17, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 282 – the lowest since September 20 (248). Of those hospitalized, 59 were in intensive care and 223 were being treated outside the ICU.
For contextual purposes, Minnesota peaked at 1,840 COVID hospitalizations in late November.
Across the state, there were 155 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 1,001 positive results in Friday’s update were a total of 45,367 tests completed, creating a daily test positivity rate of 2.2%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the Minnesota test positivity rate for the past seven days is 3.20%. It is almost the same rate that Minnesota had in September, before a sudden increase in cases raised the rate to more than 15% in November.
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: 7,100,497 (over 7,055,550)
- People tested: 3,398,492 (over 3,386,418)
- People with at least 1 vaccine injection: 728,081 (over 710,305)
- People with 2 vaccines: 286,543 (out of 264,122)
- Positive cases: 477,287 (out of 476,292)
- Deaths: 6,412 – 269 of which are “probable *” (above 6,404)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 463,454 (out of 463,041)
* 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.