The National Guard via Flickr
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) Wednesday’s COVID-19 update includes 1,611 new cases and 13 new deaths.
New deaths increase the state’s death toll to 7,044 in the course of the pandemic. Of the total deaths, 61.5% (4,339) were long-term care residents.
As of April 19, the state reported that 2,324,241 people have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 1,648,311 people have completed their vaccine series.
Fifty-two percent of Minnesota people aged 16 and over have received at least one shot, while 85.5% of the population aged 65 and over have had at least one dose of vaccine. Overall, 41.8% of the state’s population has had at least one dose.
MDH has a public bulletin board to track the progress of vaccines in Minnesota and you can see it here.
Hospitalizations
As of April 20, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 676, down from the 686 reported Monday.
Of those hospitalized, 193 people were in intensive care (no change was recorded compared to 193 on Tuesday) and 483 were receiving treatment that was not used in the ICU (compared to 493).
The following is how admissions to the Minnesota hospital have progressed since March 7th.
- March 7: 223 (177 in the UCI, 46 in the UCI)
- March 13: 255 (194 in the ICU, 61 in the ICU)
- March 20: 324 (246 no UCI, 78 UCI)
- March 27: 356 (264 no UCI, 92 UCI)
- April 2: 439 (337 in UCI, 112 UCI)
- April 8: 595 (461 UCI, 134 UCI)
- April 14: 699 (531 in UCI, 168 UCI)
- April 20: 676 (483 in UCI, 193 UCI)
Test rates and positivity
The 1,611 positive results of Wednesday’s update were 24,501 completed tests, creating a test positivity rate of 6.57%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the Minnesota test positivity rate over the past seven days is 6.66%.
The World Health Organization recommends that a positive percentage rate (the total number of positives divided by the total number of tests completed) of less than 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: 8,904,956 (compared to 8,880,741)
- Tested people: 3,923,029 (to 3,915,190)
- People with at least 1 vaccine: 2,324,241 (compared to 2,304,975)
- People who have completed it. series of vaccines: 1,648,311 (up to 1,630,999)
- Positive cases: 560,450 (up to 558,850)
- Deaths: 7,044 – 387 of which are “probable *” (up to 7,031)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 537,130 (to 534,889)
* 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.