Tuesday’s COVID update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 500 new cases and one new death.
The recently reported death brings the state total to 6,434 during the course of the pandemic. It is the second day in a row that a single death has been reported.
Of the total deaths, 62.7% (4,038) were long-term care residents.
As of February 21, the state reported that 762,089 people had received at least 1 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 362,156 people had completed the two doses of the vaccine that are required for maximum effect of the vaccines.
MDH has a public dashboard to track the progress of the vaccine in Minnesota, and you can view it here.
Hospitalizations
As of February 22, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 269, up from 235 on Sunday.
Of those hospitalized, 54 were in intensive care and 215 were receiving treatment outside the ICU.
Test and positivity rates
The 500 positive results in Tuesday’s update were only 9,498 tests completed, generating a daily test positivity rate of 5.26%. However, the data that is normally reported on Tuesdays shows anomalous results compared to the days before and after.
According to Johns Hopkins University, Minnesota’s test positivity rate for the past seven days is 3.24%. It’s about the same rate Minnesota had in September before a surge in cases pushed the rate to more than 15% in November.
The World Health Organization recommends that a positive percentage rate (total positives divided by total tests completed) be less than 5% 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 in numbers
- Total tests: 7,187,985 (since 7,178,713)
- Tested people: 3,425,265 (from 3,422,813)
- People with at least 1 vaccine: 762,089 (from 759,747)
- People with 2 vaccines: 362,156 (from 356,911)
- Positive cases: 480,091 (from 479,591)
- Deceased: 6,434 – 270 of which are “probable *” (vs. 6,433)
- Patients who no longer require isolation: 467,147 (from 466,311)
* Likely deaths are patients who died after testing positive for the COVID-19 antigen, which is believed to be less accurate than the more common PCR test.