Credit: Gov. Tom Wolff via Flickr
Today’s update includes data from Saturday to Sunday, so totals may seem high compared to a normal single reporting day.
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) Tuesday’s COVID-19 update includes 3,882 new cases and six recently reported deaths, all six in August.
The death toll in the state has been 7,811 since the start of the pandemic. Of the total deaths, 58.2% (4,544) were long-term care residents.
As of August 29, the state reported that 3,314,084 people have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 3,111,569 people have completed the vaccine series. The percentage of Minnesota’s population with at least one trait, by age group:
- 12-15: 50%
- 16-17: 57%
- 18-49: 62%
- 50-64: 74%
- 65 years or older: 92%
- Total population: 60%
55.9% of Minnesota’s total population, including those under the age of 12 who are not eligible for the vaccine, have completed the vaccine series. This jumps to 66.2% when children under 12 are excluded. MDH has a public bulletin board to track the progress of vaccines in Minnesota and you can see it here.
Hospitalizations
As of Aug. 30, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 589 (below the 591 reported Monday).
Of those hospitalized, 164 people are in intensive care and 425 in general hospital care. The spring increase recorded a maximum of 202 patients in intensive care and 517 people in general hospital care.
The following explains how many people are hospitalized by Minnesota region, although this does not mean that each patient has contracted the virus in those specific regions, as they may have been diverted based on available beds.
- Metro: 86 UCI, 247 in UCI
- Central: 27 UCI, 49 in the UCI
- Southeast: 26 UCI, 43 no UCI
- Northeast: 13 UCI, 26 no UCI
- Northwest: 8 UCI, 15 no UCI
- South center: 3 UCI, 27 in the UCI
- Southwest: 1 UCI, 14 no UCI
- West center: 0 UCI, 4 in the UCI
Test rates and positivity.
The 3,882 positive results of Tuesday’s update correspond to 65,029 tests completed, which generated a test positivity rate of 5.97%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the Minnesota test positivity rate over the past seven days is 4.88%, although this figure is distorted and lower than it would have been due to a data spill of close to 60,000 tests last week.
The World Health Organization recommends that a positive percentage rate (positive dividends divided by the total number of tests completed) of less than 5% be required for at least two weeks to keep the economy open safely. This 5% threshold is based on the total positives divided by the total tests.
Coronavirus in Minnesota by the numbers
- Total tests: 11,456,835 (compared to 11,391,772)
- Tested people: 5,078,283 (to 5,041,034)
- People with at least 1 vaccine: 3,314,084 (to 3,305,165)
- People who have completed the vaccine series: 3,111,569 (to 3,099,199)
- Positive cases: 649,964 (to 646,094)
- Deaths: 7,811 – 429 of which are “probable *” (up to 7,805)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 630,243 (to 625,274)
* 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.