Minnesota National Guard
Monday’s COVID update from the Minnesota Department of Health includes four new deaths and fewer than 1,000 new cases.
The recently reported deaths bring the state’s total to 5,711 during the pandemic, of which 64% (3,655) were residents of long-term care, including two of the four reported Monday.
Minnesota confirmed Saturday night the first five cases of the UK-based mutant variant of COVID-19, with residents of four Twin Cities counties testing positive for B.1.1.7. variant after falling ill between December 16-31.
Meanwhile, the state reported on Monday that 147,645 people had been vaccinated with Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. The state received 396,350 doses.
hospitalization
As of January 10, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 686, down from 787 on January 6. It is the lowest number of COVID admissions since October 28 (680).
Of those hospitalized, 141 (up from 130 reported on Friday) were in intensive care, and 545 (down from 629) received non-ICU treatment.
Statewide, 180 beds were available for the ICU. During the November increase, the state had less than 100 intensive care beds available. The number of beds available depends on the number of staff available, so the total is constantly changing.
Test rates and positivity
The 980 positive results in Monday’s update were from a total of 15,980 completed tests, creating a daily test positivity rate of 6.13%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the Minnesota test positivity rate over the past seven days is 8.25%, which is trending backwards after falling below 5% just over a week ago.
The World Health Organization recommends that a positive percentage rate (total positive divided by the total number of tests completed) of less than 5% for at least two weeks be needed 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: 5,953,863 (out of 5,935,902)
- Tested persons: 3,089,057 (of 3,082,747)
- Positive cases: 437,552 (of the 436,572)
- deaths: 5,711 – 202 of which are “probable *” (increasing from 5,707)
- Patients who no longer need isolation: 417,005 (of the 414,756)
- Total number of people vaccinated: 147,645 (out of 132,280)
* Probable deaths are patients who died after a positive test using the COVID-19 antigen test, which is thought to be less accurate than the more common PCR test.