Credit: April Ellers, Minneapolis VA Health Care System
Saturday’s COVID update from the Minnesota Department of Health includes 37 new deaths and more than 1,400 new cases.
The new reported deaths bring the state’s total to 5,887 over the pandemic, of which (63.8%) (3,756) were long-term care residents, including 22 of the 37 reported Saturday.
Last Saturday, Minnesota confirmed the first five cases of the UK-based mutant variant of COVID-19, and residents in four Twin Cities counties tested positive for B.1.1.7. varying after falling ill between 16 and 31 December.
No further cases of the new strain have been confirmed, but health officials believe the variant is widely circulating in Minnesota.
Meanwhile, the state reported that as of January 13, 174,110 people have received at least one dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, while 32,131 people have completed the vaccine doses needed for the full effect of the vaccines.
The Department of Health has launched a public bulletin board to track the distribution of vaccines in Minnesota, and you can see it here.
Hospitalizations
Hospitalization data is not updated on weekends.
As of Jan. 14, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 612, which is the lowest number of admissions per COVID reported since Oct. 25 (584).
Of those hospitalized, 125 (compared to 131 the day before) were in intensive care and 487 (less than 514) were receiving treatment that was not used in the ICU.
Across the state, there were 148 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 1,485 positive results of Saturday’s update were from a total of 30,774 completed tests, which created a daily positivity rate of 4.82%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the Minnesota test positivity rate over the past seven days is 5.52%.
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: 6,121,001 (since 6,090,114)
- Tested people: 3,134,557 (compared to 3,124,903)
- Positive cases: 445,047 (up to 443,562)
- Deaths: 5,887 – 214 of which are “probable *” (up to 5,850)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 425,253 (up to 422,289)
* Probable deaths are patients who died after testing positive for the COVID-19 antigen test, which is believed to be less accurate than the more common PCR test.