Credit: Navy Medicine via Flickr
Monday’s Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) COVID update contains 555 new cases and one new death.
The recently reported death brings the state to 6,433 in the course of the pandemic. Of the deaths, 62.7% (4,038) were residents of long-term care, including the only reported death on Monday.
As of February 20, the state reported that 759,747 people had received at least 1 dose of COVID-19 vaccine, while 356,911 people had completed both doses of vaccination required 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
As of Feb. 21, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 235 – lower than 282 Thursday.
Of those admitted to the hospital, 48 were in intensive care – lower than Thursday 59 – and 187 received non-ICU treatment.
Test and positivity rates
The 555 positive results in Monday’s update were from a total of 17,666 completed tests, resulting in a daily test positivity rate of 3.14%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, Minnesota’s positivity rate over the past seven days is 3.25%. That’s about the same rate as Minnesota had in September before an increase in cases raised the rate to above 15% in November.
The World Health Organization recommends that a percentage positive rate (total positive divided by total completed tests) of at least two weeks below 5% is needed to safely reopen the economy. The 5% threshold is based on total positive share through total tests.
Coronavirus in Minnesota by Numbers
- Total tests: 7 178 713 (from 7,161,046)
- People tested: 3,422,813 (from 3,417,125)
- People shot with at least 1 vaccination: 759 747 (from 754 602)
- People with 2 vaccine shots: 356,911 (versus 341,332)
- Positive cases: 479 591 (from 479 036)
- Deaths: 6,433 – 270 of which are “probably *” (compared to 6,432)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 466,311 (from 465 382)
* 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.