Minnesota National Guard via Flickr
Sunday’s COVID update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) contains 779 new cases and a total of seven deaths.
The newly reported deaths bring the state to 6,376 in the course of the pandemic. Of the deaths, 62.8% (4,016) were residents of long-term care, including two of the seven reported on Sunday
As of February 12, the state reported that 661,187 people had received at least 1 dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 227,551 people had completed both doses of vaccine needed for the maximum effect of the vaccines.
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 what was the first known case of the Brazil P.1 variant in the United States. The case involves a Minnesotan who traveled to Brazil. There are 8 confirmed cases of the B.1.1.7 variant. Both new strains are believed to be more transmissible.
Hospitalizations
Hospitalization data are not updated over the weekend.
As of Feb. 11, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 326 – a slight increase from 320 the previous day. Of those admitted to the hospital, 73 were in intensive care (less than 78) and 253 received non-ICU treatment (versus 242).
Across the country, there were 161 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 779 positive results in the Sunday update were from a total of 27,155 completed tests, resulting in a daily test positivity rate of 2.86%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, Minnesota’s test positivity rate over the past seven days is 3.25%, 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: 6,971,879 (from 6,944,687)
- People tested: 3,365,599 (from 3,356,005)
- People shot with at least 1 vaccination: 661,187 (from 641,844)
- People with 2 vaccine shots: 227 551 (from 209 010)
- Positive cases: 473 567 (from 472 791)
- Deaths: 6 376 – 265 of these are “probably *” (compared to 6 369)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 459,525 (versus 458,492)
* 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.