Credit: Marc A. Hermann / MTA New York City Transit via Flickr
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) COVID update on Sunday includes 901 new cases and 10 new deaths.
The new reported deaths bring the state total to 6,299 over the pandemic. Of these deaths, 63% (3,971) were long-term care residents, including 5 out of ten Sundays.
As of Feb. 5, the state reported that 554,102 people have received at least one dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, while 156,638 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
Hospitalization chiefs are not updated on weekends.
Test rates and positivity
The 901 positive results of Sunday’s update came from a total of 27,922 completed tests, which generated a daily positivity rate of 3.22%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, Minnesota’s test positivity rate over the past seven days is 3.53%, 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: 6,780,024 (from 6,751,744)
- Tested people: 3,314,427 (to 3,305,989)
- People with at least 1 vaccine: 554,102 (to 525,236)
- People with 2 vaccines: 156,638 (from 147,321)
- Positive cases: 468,118 (compared to 467,217)
- Deaths: 6,299 – 261 of which are “probable *” (up to 6,289)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 453,225 (up to 452,183)
* 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.