Credit: Navy Medicine via Flickr
Thursday’s COVID update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 907 new cases and a total of 24 deaths.
The new reported deaths bring the state total to 6,343 over the pandemic. Of those deaths, 63 percent (3,996) were long-term care residents, including 13 of the 24 reported Thursday.
One of the recently reported deaths was a 35- to 39-year-old person from Anoka County. It is the 26th death of someone in this age group. On Wednesday, the state reported the second death of a child under the age of 10 related to COVID in Minnesota.
As of Feb. 9, the state reported that 599,218 people have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 177,239 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
As of Feb. 10, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 320. Of those hospitalized, 78 were in intensive care and 242 were receiving treatment that was not used in the ICU.
Statewide, 174 staffed ICU beds were available. 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 907 positive results of Thursday’s update came from a total of 43,203 completed tests, creating a daily test positivity rate of 2.1%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the Minnesota test positivity rate over the past seven days is 3.46%, 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 the total number of tests completed) of less than 5% for at least two weeks.
Coronavirus in Minnesota by the numbers
- Total tests: 6,871,077 (up to 6,828,887)
- Tested people: 3,337,790 (up to 3,327,336)
- People with at least 1 vaccine: 599,218 (up to 583,602)
- People with 2 vaccines: 177,239 (up to 168,495)
- Positive cases: 470,803 (up to 469,905)
- Deaths: 6,343 – 262 of which are “probable *” (up to 6,319)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 456,849 (up to 456,244)
* 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.