Credit: New Jersey National Guard via Flickr
Sunday’s COVID update from the Department of Health in Minnesota contains 32 new deaths and 1,181 new cases.
The newly reported deaths bring the state to 6,095 in the course of the pandemic. Of those deaths, (63.5%) (3,875) were residents of long-term care, including 22 of the 32 reported on Sunday.
Meanwhile, by January 21, the state reported that 247,415 people had received at least 1 dose of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, while 63,185 people had completed both doses of vaccination required for the full effect of the vaccines.
The Department of Health has launched a public dashboard to track the distribution of vaccines in Minnesota, and you can see it here.
The B.1.1.7. A variant of the coronavirus first discovered in the UK has been found in Minnesota, and health officials have so far confirmed five cases of the variant in the Twin Cities metro area, but since January, nothing further has been released.
Hospitalizations
Hospitalization data are not updated on weekends.
As of Jan. 21, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 543. Of those admitted to the hospital, 104 were in intensive care and 439 received non-ICU treatment.
There were 163 ICU beds available nationwide. 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 rates
The 1,181 positive results in the Sunday update were from a total of 34,874 completed tests, resulting in a daily test positivity rate of 3.38%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the test positivity rate of Minnesota over the past seven days is 4.66%, making it one of the lowest rates in the country.
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: 6,367,721 (from 6,332,647)
- People tested: 3,206,509 (higher than 3,193,783)
- Positive cases: 454,989 (from 453,808)
- Deaths: 6,095 – 231 of which “probably *” are (compared to 6,063)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 437 827 (from 436,544)
* 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.