Credit: Phil Roeder via Flickr
Tuesday’s COVID update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) contains 586 new cases and six new deaths.
The newly reported deaths bring the state to 6,308 in the course of the pandemic. Of the deaths, 63% (3,977) were residents of long-term care, including five of the six reported Tuesday.
As of February 7, the state reported that 569,164 people had received at least 1 dose of COVID-19 vaccine, while 162,132 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. It is believed that both new strains are more transmissible.
Hospitalizations
As of Feb. 8, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 321. Of those admitted to the hospital, 74 were in intensive care and 247 received non-ICU treatment.
Overall, there were 177 ICU beds with staff 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 rates
The 564 positive results in Tuesday’s update were from a total of 10,623 completed tests, resulting in a daily test positivity of 5.31%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, Minnesota’s positive rate over the past seven days is 3.47%, 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: 6,808,634 (from 6,798,547)
- People tested: 3 322 594 (from 3 321 315)
- People shot with at least 1 vaccination: 569,164 (from 556,482)
- People with 2 vaccine shots: 162,132 (versus 158,763)
- Positive cases: 469,254 (from 468 682)
- Deaths: 6 308 – of which 262 are “probably *” (compared to 6 302)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 455 280 (from 454,290)
* 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.