Credit: Navy Medicine via Flickr
Saturday’s Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) COVID update includes 1,030 new cases and 17 new deaths.
The recently reported deaths bring the state total to 6,290 over the course of the pandemic. Of these deaths, 63.3% (3,960) were residents of long-term care facilities, including seven of the 17 reported on Saturday.
As of February 4, the state reported that 525,236 people had received at least 1 dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, while 147,321 people completed the two doses of the vaccine needed for the full 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 recently traveled to Brazil. There are 8 confirmed cases of variant B.1.1.7. Both new strains are believed to be more transmissible.
Hospitalizations
Hospital data is not updated on weekends.
As of February 4, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 362. Of those hospitalized, 82 were in intensive care and 280 were receiving treatment outside the ICU.
Across the state, 150 ICU beds were 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 1,030 positive results in Saturday’s update were a total of 34,448 tests completed, creating a daily test positivity rate of 2.99%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the Minnesota test positivity rate for the past seven days is 3.49%, 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: 6,751,744 (over 6,717,419)
- People tested: 3,305,989 (out of 3,296,876)
- People with at least 1 vaccine injection: 525,236 (over 497,843)
- People with 2 vaccines: 147,321 (over 138,212)
- Positive cases: 467,217 (over 466,224)
- Deaths: 6,289 – 261 of which are “probable *” (above 6,273)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 452,183 (over 450,924)
* 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.