Credit: Navy Medicine via Flickr
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) COVID update on Saturday includes 1,030 new cases and 17 new deaths.
The new reported deaths bring the state total to 6,290 during the pandemic. Of those deaths, 63.3% (3,960) were long-term care residents, including seven of the 17 reported Saturday.
As of Feb. 4, the state reported that 525,236 people have received at least 1 dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, while 147,321 people have completed the vaccine doses that are needed for the full 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. This case involves a Minnesota man who recently 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. 4, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 362. Of those hospitalized, 82 were in intensive care and 280 were receiving treatment that was not used in the ICU.
Across the state, there were 150 beds available for 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 1,030 positive results of Saturday’s update came from a total of 34,448 completed tests, creating a daily test positivity rate of 2.99%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, Minnesota’s test positivity rate over the past seven days is 3.49%, making it one of the lowest rates in the country.
The World Health Organization recommends that to reopen the economy requires a percentage of positive percentages (total positives divided by total tests completed) of less than 5% for at least two weeks.
Coronavirus in Minnesota by the numbers
- Total tests: 6,751,744 (up to 6,717,419)
- Tested people: 3,305,989 (compared to 3,296,876)
- People with at least 1 vaccine: 525,236 (up to 497,843)
- People with 2 vaccines: 147,321 (up to 138,212)
- Positive cases: 467,217 (to 466,224)
- Deaths: 6,289 – 261 of which are “probable *” (up to 6,273)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 452,183 (up to 450,924)
* 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.