US Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Scott Jenkins via Flickr
Seventy-five deaths have been added to the Minnesota COVID-19 tax, as well as more than 1,500 new cases, according to Wednesday’s report from the state health department.
December now recorded 1,378, which is most of any month in Minnesota during the pandemic. There were fewer than 500 deaths in October, before the number of deaths in November rose to 1,136. Since the first death was reported on March 21, Minnesota has reported a total of 4,971 fatalities.
Long-term care deaths accounted for 64.8% (3,220) of the total, including 45 of the 75 reported on Tuesday.
Apart from deaths, COVID-19 numbers in Minnesota are largely declining. For the outlook, consider that in mid-November Minnesota reported over 50,000 active cases. Currently, there are 23,007 active cases, according to the health department.
hospitalization
As of December 21, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota is 1,060. This is up from 1,040 months and significantly lower than the high of 1,840 on November 30th.
Of those hospitalized, 228 were in intensive care and 832 received non-ICU treatment. An update from Wednesday has not yet been provided.
Test rates and positivity
The 1,513 positive results from Wednesday’s update come from a total of 23,563 completed tests, creating a daily test positivity rate of 6.42%.
The World Health Organization recommended in May that a positive percentage rate (total positive divided by total completed tests) of less than 5% is needed for at least two weeks to safely reopen the economy. That 5% threshold is based on the total positives divided by the total tests.
Coronavirus in Minnesota by numbers
- Total tests: 5,287,998 (of the 5,264,561)
- Tested persons: 2,889,650 (of 2,881,770)
- Positive cases: 402,519 (of the 401,011)
- deaths: 4,971 – 137 of which are “probable *” (increasing from 4,896)
- Active cases: 23,007 (decreasing from 24,657)
- Patients who no longer require isolation: 379,512 (of the 376,354)