Credit: New York National Guard, via Flickr
Note: Tuesday’s update includes 891 cases and 138 deaths that were not previously reported to the Minnesota Department of Health by private labs, which was a violation of a state rule. Cases and deaths happened over the past year, making today’s report show a massive increase in deaths.
Tuesday’s COVID update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 1,641 new cases (891 were from last year) and 140 new deaths (138 from last year).
The new reported deaths bring the state total to 6,696 over the pandemic. Of the total deaths, 63% (4,220) were residents of long-term care, including 138 of the last 140 deaths.
As of March 7, the state reported that 1,086,936 people have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 602,623 people have completed the vaccine doses that are needed for the maximum effect of the vaccines.
MDH has a public bulletin board to track the progress of vaccines in Minnesota and you can see it here.
Hospitalizations
As of March 7, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 231, up from 223 on Monday.
Of those hospitalized, 50 are in intensive care (up to 46) and 181 receive non-ICU treatment (up to 177).
Test rates and positivity
The 1,641 positive results of Tuesday’s update correspond to 10,056 completed tests, which created a daily positivity rate of 16.3%, although the figures are skewed by the previously unreported totals included in the today’s report.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the Minnesota test positivity rate over the past seven days is 2.48%.
The World Health Organization recommends that a percentage of positive percentages (divided by the total number of tests completed) below 5% be needed for at least two weeks to reopen the economy safely. This 5% threshold is based on the total positives divided by the total tests.
Coronavirus in Minnesota by the numbers
- Total tests: 7,606,434 (to 7,599,660)
- Tested people: 3,534,588 (up to 3,539,172)
- People with at least 1 vaccine: 1,086,936 (compared to 1,072,260)
- People with 2 vaccines: 602,623 (from 592,134)
- Positive cases: 492,108 (up to 490,483)
- Deaths: 6,696 – 368 of which are “probable *” (up to 6,555)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 478,422 (up to 476,856)
* Probable deaths are patients who died after testing positive for the COVID-19 antigen test, which is thought to be less accurate than the more common PCR test.