Credit: Navy Medicine via Flickr
Monday’s Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) COVID update includes 555 new cases and one new death.
The recently reported death brings the state’s total to 6,433 over the course of the pandemic. Of those deaths, 62.7% (4,038) were long-term care residents, including the only death reported Monday.
As of Feb. 20, the state reported that 759,747 people have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 356,911 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.
Two new coronavirus variants have been confirmed in Minnesota, including what was the first known case of the Brazil P.1 variant in the United States. In this case it is a Minnesota who traveled to Brazil. There are 8 confirmed cases of variant B.1.1.7. The two new strains are believed to be more transmissible.
Hospitalizations
As of Feb. 21, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 235, down from 282 on Thursday.
Of those hospitalized, 48 were in intensive care (less than 59 on Thursday) and 187 received treatment that did not belong to the ICU.
Test rates and positivity
The 555 positive results of Monday’s update came from a total of 17,666 completed tests, creating a daily test positivity rate of 3.14%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the Minnesota test positivity rate over the past seven days is 3.25%. It is around the same rate as Minnesota in September before an increase in cases raised the rate above 15% in November.
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: 7,178,713 (Until 7,161,046)
- Tested people: 3,422,813 (up to 3,417,125)
- People with at least 1 vaccine: 759,747 (up to 754,602)
- People with 2 vaccines: 356,911 (to 341,332)
- Positive cases: 479,591 (up to 479,036)
- Deaths: 6,433 – 270 of which are “probable *” (up to 6,432)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 466,311 (up to 465,382)
* 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.