Credit: Navy Medicine via Flickr
Saturday’s COVID update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 870 new cases and 11 deaths.
The new reported deaths bring the state total to 6,423 over the course of the pandemic. Of those deaths, 62.8% (4,034) were long-term care residents, including six of the 11 reported Saturday.
As of Feb. 17, the state reported that 742,760 people have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 315,284 people have completed the vaccine doses 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
Hospital data is not updated on weekends.
As of Feb. 17, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 282, the lowest since Sept. 20 (248). Of those hospitalized, 59 were in intensive care and 223 were receiving treatment that was not used in the ICU.
By context, Minnesota reached a high point of 1,840 hospitalizations for COVID at the end of November.
Across the state, there were 155 beds available in the ICU. During the November hike, the state had less than 100 staff-intensive beds available. The number of beds available depends on the number of staff available, so totals are constantly changing.
Test rates and positivity
The 870 positive results of Saturday’s update came from a total of 32,110 completed tests, which created a daily positivity rate of 2.7%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the Minnesota test positivity rate over the past seven days is 3.29%. 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 to reopen the economy requires a percentage of positive percentages (total positives divided by the total number of tests completed) of less than 5% for at least two weeks, this 5% threshold is based on in the total of positives divided by the total of tests.
Coronavirus in Minnesota by the numbers
- Total tests: 7,132,441 (up to 7,100,497)
- Tested people: 3,406,347 (to 3,398,492)
- People with at least 1 vaccine: 742,760 (to 728,081)
- People with 2 vaccines: 315,284 (up to 286,543)
- Positive cases: 478,157 (compared to 477,287)
- Deaths: 6,423 – 270 of which are “probable *” (up to 6,412)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 464,504 (to 463,454)
* 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.