Thursday’s COVID-19 update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 1,904 new cases and 22 recently reported deaths, 21 of the 22 occurring in August (one in July).
The death toll in the state has been 7,839 since the start of the pandemic. Of the total deaths, 58.0% (4,550) were long-term care residents.
As of August 30, the state reported that 3,322,642 people have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 3,122,523 people have completed the vaccine series. The percentage of Minnesota’s population with at least one trait, by age group:
- 12-15: 51%
- 16-17: 58%
- 18-49: 62%
- 50-64: 74%
- 65 years or older: 92%
- Total population: 60%
56.1% 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 66.4% 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 Sept. 1, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 631 (up from 614 reported Wednesday).
Of those hospitalized, 163 people are in intensive care and 468 in general hospital care. The spring increase 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: 85 UCI, 269 in the UCI
- Central: 27 UCI, 53 in UCI
- Southeast: 29 UCI, 49 no UCI
- Northeast: 10 UCI, 31 no UCI
- Northwest: 7 UCI, 16 no UCI
- South center: 3 UCI, 26 in the UCI
- Southwest: 2 UCI, 17 no UCI
- Midwest: 0 UCI, 7 in the UCI
Test rates and positivity.
The 1,904 positive results of Thursday’s update came from 39,538 completed tests, creating a test positivity rate of 4.81%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the Minnesota test positivity rate over the past seven days is 6.83%.
The World Health Organization recommends that a percentage of positive percentages (positive divisions among total tests completed) of less than 5% be required for at least two weeks to keep the economy open safely.
Coronavirus in Minnesota by the numbers
- Total tests: 11,525,903 (compared to 11,486,181)
- Tested people: 5,112,296 (to 5,094,127)
- People with at least 1 vaccine: 3,322,642 (to 3,317,709)
- People who have completed the vaccine series: 3,122,523 (compared to 3,116,298)
- Positive cases: 653,288 (to 651,388)
- Deaths: 7,839 – 431 of which are “probable *” (up to 7,817)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 632,808 (compared to 631,796)
* 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.