Credit: Navy Medicine via Flickr
Tuesday’s COVID update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 425 new cases and four new deaths.
The new reported deaths bring the state total to 6,490 during the pandemic.
Of the total number of deaths, 62.6% (4,057) were residents of long-term care, including one of the last four deaths.
As of Feb. 28, the state reported that 908,590 people have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 472,789 people have completed the vaccine doses that are 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.
Hospitalizations
As of March 1, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 243, up from 230 on February 28.
Of those hospitalized, 57 are in intensive care (up to 47) and 186 receive treatment that is not used in the ICU (up to 183).
Tests and positivity rates
The 425 positive results of Tuesday’s update correspond to 10,915 completed tests, which generated a daily positivity rate of 3.89%.
Tuesdays tend to present unusual figures compared to other days due to delays in weekend reports.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the Minnesota test positivity rate over the past seven days is 3.45%, which has increased slightly over the past week.
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: 7,376,464 (to 7,365,792)
- Tested people: 3,478,891 (to 3,476,724)
- People with at least 1 vaccine: 908,590 (to 902,242)
- People with 2 vaccines: 472,789 (compared to 467,300)
- Positive cases: 485,655 (up to 485,230)
- Deaths: 6,490 – 271 of which are “probable *” (up to 6,486)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 472,470 (up to 471,647)
* 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.