Almost 6,000 new cases in latest COVID-19 update for Minnesota

A further 31 deaths have been confirmed.

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Minnesota has once again broken its single-day number of COVID-19 cases, with a further 31 deaths confirmed.

There were 5,924 new cases of COVID-19 reported Saturday, of which 16 were removed for a total of 5,908. This shatters the record of 5,442 set on Friday. A further 31 deaths were reported.

Of the 31 new deaths, 18 were residents of long-term care facilities. Long-term care deaths have accounted for 1,836 of the state's 2,656 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.

The latest deaths include someone aged 40-44 in Ramsey County, and someone aged 45-49 in Hennepin County.

Hospitalizations

Hospitalization figures aren't updated at the weekends. As of Friday, there were 224 people with COVID-19 in intensive care in Minnesota and 814 people with the disease in non-ICU hospital care.

Here's how the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations has increased since Oct. 28.

Oct. 28 – 680 (hospitalized at the time of the report)
Oct. 29 – 694
Oct. 30 – 738
Oct. 31 – 772
Nov. 1 – 790
Nov. 2 – 780
Nov. 3 – 862
Nov. 4 – 914 (adjusted from an initial report of 908)
Nov. 5 – 1,007 (adjusted from an initial report of 931)
Nov. 6 – 1,038

On Wednesday, Gov. Tim Walz requested federal assistance to help with the pressure on the state's hospital system, with staffing shortages meaning many hospitals and ICU suites are nearing capacity.

Testing and positivity rates

The MDH reported 41,917 diagnostic PCR tests and an additional 2,996 antigen tests for a total of 44,913 completed tests.

Those tests were from 21,079 people tested. People are often tested multiple times, so the more accurate reading for test positivity rate is based on the total number of people tested, which today's report is at 28.1%.

The positivity rate reported Saturday when total cases is divided by total tests, is 13.18%. Health experts say positivity rates need to be below the 5% mark to control the spread of the virus.

Coronavirus in Minnesota by the numbers

Total tests: 3,120,995 (up from 3,075,413)
People tested: 2,003,245 (up from 1,982,166)
Positive cases: 180,862 (up from 174,954)
Deaths: 2,656, 25 of which are "probable*" (up from 2,625)
Patients no longer requiring isolation: 146,311 (up from 142,800)

* 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.