Credit: Noor Joonas / Central Health Laboratory via Flickr
Friday’s Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) COVID update includes 1,449 new cases and nine new deaths.
The recently reported deaths bring the state total to 6,771 during the course of the pandemic. Of the total deaths, 63% (4,247) were resident in long-term care facilities.
As of March 17, the state has reported that 1,337,892 people have received at least 1 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 788,495 people have completed the two doses of the vaccine necessary 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
As of March 18, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 316, up from 297 reported on Thursday.
Of those hospitalized, 74 were in intensive care (without change) and 242 were receiving treatment outside the ICU (out of 223).
Test rates and positivity
The 1,449 positive results in Friday’s update were 40,005 tests completed, creating a daily test positivity rate of 3.62%
According to Johns Hopkins University, the Minnesota test positivity rate for the past seven days is 4.45%.
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: 7,887,332 (over 7,847,879)
- People tested: 3,586,274 (over 3,577,071)
- People with at least 1 vaccine injection: 1,337,892 (over 1,303,210)
- People with 2 vaccines: 788,495 (over 764,275)
- Positive cases: 502,893 (over 501,458)
- Deaths: 6,771 – 369 of which are “probable *” (over 6,762)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 485,912 (over 485,358)
* 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.