Credit: The National Guard via Flickr
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) COVID-19 update on Thursday includes 1,839 new cases and 11 recently reported deaths, 10 of which occurred this month and one in April.
The death toll in the state has been 7,793 since the start of the pandemic. Of the total deaths, 58.5% (4,542) were long-term care residents.
On August 24, the state reported that 3,295,189 people have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 3,086,707 people have completed the vaccine series. The percentage of Minnesota’s population with at least one trait, by age group:
- 12-15: 49%
- 16-17: 57%
- 18-49: 61%
- 50-64: 74%
- 65 years or older: 92%
- Total population: 59%
55.5% of Minnesota’s total population, including those under the age of 12 who are not eligible for the vaccine, have completed the vaccine series. This jumps to 65.6% when children under 12 are excluded. MDH has a public bulletin board to track the progress of vaccines in Minnesota and you can see it here.
Hospitalizations
As of Aug. 25, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 584 (up from 576 reported Wednesday).
Of those hospitalized, 165 people are in intensive care and 419 in general hospital care. Both are the highest they have been since early May during the end of the spring climb. The peak of spring recorded a maximum of 202 patients in intensive care and 517 people in general hospital care.
The following explains how many people are hospitalized according to the Minnesota regions, although this does not mean that each patient has contracted the virus in those specific regions, as they may have been diverted depending on the beds available.
- Metro: 93 UCI, 256 in the UCI
- Central: 26 UCI, 49 in the UCI
- Southeast: 22 UCI, 52 no UCI
- Northeast: 13 UCI, 12 no UCI
- Northwest: 7 UCI, 17 no UCI
- South center: 4 UCI, 23 in the UCI
- Southwest: 1 UCI, 15 no UCI
- Midwest: 0 UCI, 5 in the UCI
Test rates and positivity.
The 1,839 positive results of Thursday’s update came from 30,762 completed tests, which generated a test positivity rate of 5.98%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the Minnesota test positivity rate over the past seven days is 4.71%, which fell more than 6% in Wednesday’s report because the health department released tens of thousands of updated tests.
The World Health Organization recommends that a percentage of positive percentages (divided by the total number of tests completed) of less than 5% be required for at least two weeks to keep the economy open safely. This 5% threshold is based on the total positives divided by the total tests.
Coronavirus in Minnesota by the numbers
- Total tests: 11,319,639 (to 11,288,952)
- Tested people: 5,004,903 (compared to 4,988,047)
- People with at least 1 vaccine: 3,295,189 (to 3,290,707)
- People who have completed the vaccine series: 3,086,707 (to 3,080,709)
- Positive cases: 642,288 (to 640,459)
- Deaths: 7,793 – 429 of which are “probable *” (up to 7,782)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 622,586 (up to 621,845)
* 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.