Credit: April Ellers, Minneapolis VA Health Care System
Saturday’s Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) COVID update contains 1,072 new cases and 19 new deaths.
The newly reported deaths bring the state to 6187 in the course of the pandemic. Of the deaths, 63.4% (3,922) were residents of long-term care, including 11 of the 19 reported on Saturday.
As of January 28, the state reported that 381,204 people had received at least 1 dose of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine – an increase of more than 35,000 on a previous day – while 105,361 people had completed both doses of vaccine needed for the vaccines. ‘full effect – an increase of 8,519.
MDH has a public dashboard to track vaccine progress in Minnesota, and you can see it here.
Two new variants of the coronavirus have been confirmed in Minnesota, including the first known case of the Brazil P.1 variant in the United States. The case involves a Minnesotan who recently traveled to Brazil. There are 8 confirmed cases of the B.1.1.7 variant. Both new strains are apparently more transmissible.
Hospitalizations
Hospitalization data are not updated on weekends.
As of Jan. 28, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 450. Of those admitted to the hospital, 95 were in intensive care and 355 received non-ICU treatment.
Overall, there were 166 ICU beds available. During the November boom, the state had fewer than 100 ICU beds. The number of available beds depends on the number of available staff, and the total is therefore constantly changing.
Test and positivity figures
The 1,072 positive results in Saturday’s update were a total of 32,732 completed tests, creating a daily test positivity rate of 3.27%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, Minnesota’s positivity rate over the past seven days is 3.81%, making it one of the lowest rates in the country.
The World Health Organization recommends that a positive rate percentage (total positive divided by total completed tests) of less than 5% is required for at least two weeks to safely reopen the economy. The 5% threshold is based on total positives divided by total tests.
Coronavirus in Minnesota by Numbers
- Total tests: 6,545,968 (from 6,513,797)
- People tested: 3,253,030 (from 3,244,005)
- People shot with at least 1 vaccination: 381 204 from 28 January (compared to 345,636)
- Positive cases: 460 819 (versus 459 747)
- Deaths: 6,187 – 247 of which “probably *” is (compared to 6,168)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 444 782 (higher than 443 253)
* Probable deaths are patients who died after testing positive using the COVID-19 antigen test, which is thought to be less accurate than the more common PCR test.