Credit: Arkansas National Guard via Flickr
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) Monday’s COVID-19 update includes 1,292 new cases and six new deaths.
New deaths increase the state’s death toll to 7,026 in the course of the pandemic. Of the total deaths, 61.7% (4,336) were long-term care residents.
As of April 17, the state reported that 2,292,756 people have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 1,625,800 people have completed their vaccine series.
Fifty-two percent of Minnesota people aged 16 and over have received at least one shot, while 85% of the population aged 65 and over have had at least one dose of vaccine. Overall, 41% of the state’s population has had at least one dose.
MDH has a public bulletin board to track the progress of vaccines in Minnesota and you can see it here.
Hospitalizations
As of April 17, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 686, down from 671 reported Friday.
Of those hospitalized, 171 people were in intensive care (up to 165 were reported on Friday) and 515 were receiving treatment that was not used in the ICU (up to 506).
The following explains how Minnesota’s hospital admissions have progressed since March 7th.
- March 7: 223 (177 in the UCI, 46 in the UCI)
- March 13: 255 (194 in the ICU, 61 in the ICU)
- March 20: 324 (246 no UCI, 78 UCI)
- March 27: 356 (264 no UCI, 92 UCI)
- April 2: 439 (337 in UCI, 112 UCI)
- April 8: 595 (461 in UCI, 134 UCI)
- April 14: 699 (531 in UCI, 168 UCI)
- April 17: 686 (515 in UCI, 171 UCI)
Test rates and positivity
The 1,292 positive results of Monday’s update were 23,297 completed tests, creating a test positivity rate of 5.54%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the Minnesota test positivity rate over the past seven days is 7.01%.
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: 8,866,081 (up to 8,842,898)
- Tested people: 3,911,831 (to 3,902,960)
- People with at least 1 vaccine: 2,292,756 (compared to 2,274,426)
- People who have finished. series of vaccines: 1,625,800 (up to 1,600,887)
- Positive cases: 557,665 (to 556,381)
- Deaths: 7,026 – 386 of which are “probable *” (up to 7,020)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 532,563 (to 530,121)
* 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.