Minnesota National Guard via Flickr
Monday’s Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) COVID update includes 1,152 new cases and zero new deaths.
The zero new deaths keep the state total at 6,782 throughout the pandemic. Of the total deaths, 63% (4,248) were residents of long-term care facilities.
It is the first time since March 25, 2020 that the state has not reported a death on a regular reporting day. There were no deaths reported on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year, which were not regular reporting days.
As of March 20, the state has reported that 1,430,349 people have received at least 1 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 850,829 people have 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
As of March 21, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 318, up from 316 reported on Friday.
Of those hospitalized, 77 were in intensive care (against 77 reported on Friday) and 241 were receiving treatment outside the ICU (against 242).
Test rates and positivity
The 1,152 positive results in Monday’s update were 19,381 completed tests, creating a daily test positivity rate of 5.94%
According to Johns Hopkins University, the Minnesota test positivity rate for the past seven days is 4.66%.
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: 7,968,369 (over 7,949,000)
- People tested: 3,614,368 (over 3,606,590)
- People with at least 1 vaccine injection: 1,430,349 (over 1,408,601)
- People who have completed. vaccine series: 850,829 (over 839,860)
- Positive cases: 506,376 (over 505,224)
- Deaths: 6,782 – 370 of which are “probable *” (without changing 6,782)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 489,279 (out of 488,156)
* Probable deaths are patients who died after the test was positive using the COVID-19 antigen test, which is considered less accurate than the most common PCR test.