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Wednesday’s COVID update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) contains 669 new cases and 24 new deaths.
The newly reported deaths bring the state to 6,234 in the course of the pandemic. Of the deaths, 63.3% (3,946) were residents of long-term care, including 14 of the 24 reported on Wednesday.
As of February 1, the state reported that 458,651 people had received at least 1 dose of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, while 122,597 people had completed both doses of vaccination required for the full 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 recently 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. 2, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 379. Of those admitted to the hospital, 77 were in intensive care and 302 received non-ICU treatment.
Overall, there were 159 crew 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 rates
The 669 positive results in Wednesday’s update were a total of 21,408 completed tests, resulting in a daily test positivity rate of 3.12%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, Minnesota’s test positivity rate over the past seven days is 3.61%, 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: 6 628 961 (from 6,607,932)
- People tested: 3,276,111 (from 3,271,158)
- People shot with at least 1 vaccination: 458 651 from 1 February (compared to 447 610)
- People with 2 vaccine shots: 122,597 from 1 February (from 116,928)
- Positive cases: 463,766 (compared to 463,132)
- Deaths: 6 234 – of which 254 are “probably *” (compared to 6 210)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 449,707 (compared to 448,595)
* 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.