Today’s update includes data from Saturday-Sunday, so the totals may appear elevated compared to a normal, single day of reporting.
Tuesday’s COVID-19 update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 3,882 new cases and six newly reported deaths, all six happening in August.
The state’s death toll is 7,811 since the start of the pandemic. Of the total deaths, 58.2% (4,544) were residents of long-term care.
As of August 29, the state reported that 3,314,084 people have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 3,111,569 people have completed the vaccine series. The percentage of Minnesota’s population with at least one shot, based on age group:
- 12-15: 50%
- 16-17: 57%
- 18-49: 62%
- 50-64: 74%
- 65+: 92%
- Total population: 60%
55.9% of Minnesota’s total population, including children under the age of 12 who are not eligible for the vaccine, has completed the vaccine series. That jumps to 66.2% when excluding kids under the age of 12. MDH has a public dashboard to track vaccine progress in Minnesota, and you can view it here.
Hospitalizations
Through August 30, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 589 (down from 591 reported Monday).
Of those hospitalized, 164 people are in intensive care and 425 were in general hospital care. The spring surge saw a high of 202 patients in intensive care and 517 people in general hospital care.
Here’s how many people are hospitalized based on regions of Minnesota, though this doesn’t mean that each patient contracted the virus in these specific regions, as they may have been diverted depending upon available staffed beds.
- Metro: 86 ICU, 247 non-ICU
- Central: 27 ICU, 49 non-ICU
- Southeast: 26 ICU, 43 non-ICU
- Northeast: 13 ICU, 26 non-ICU
- Northwest: 8 ICU, 15 non-ICU
- South-central: 3 ICU, 27 non-ICU
- Southwest: 1 ICU, 14 non-ICU
- West-central: 0 ICU, 4 non-ICU
Testing and positivity rates.
The 3,882 positive results in Tuesday’s update were from 65,029 completed tests, creating a test positivity rate of 5.97%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, Minnesota’s test positivity rate over the past seven days is 4.88%, though that number is distorted and lower than it would otherwise be due to a data dump of around 60,000 tests last week.
The World Health Organization recommends that a percent positive rate (total positives divided by total completed tests) of below 5% for at least two weeks is necessary to safely keep the economy open. That 5% threshold is based on total positives divided by total tests.
Coronavirus in Minnesota by the numbers
- Total tests: 11,456,835 (up from 11,391,772)
- People tested: 5,078,283 (up from 5,041,034)
- People with at least 1 vaccine shot: 3,314,084 (up from 3,305,165)
- People who have completed vaccine series: 3,111,569 (up from 3,099,199)
- Positive cases: 649,964 (up from 646,094)
- Deaths: 7,811 – 429 of which are “probable*” (up from 7,805)
- Patients no longer requiring isolation: 630,243 (up from 625,274)
* 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.