Dec. 13 COVID-19 update: 85 deaths, more than 3,400 new cases

There have been 851 deaths reported in December.

Author:: Joe Nelson
Publish date:: Dec 13, 2020

coronavirus, COVID-19 test — Minnesota National Guard

Minnesota's Sunday COVID-19 update includes 85 more deaths, according to the Minnesota Department of Health.

The 85 newly reported deaths brings the number of fatal COVID-19 cases in Minnesota during the pandemic to 4,444. Long-term care deaths account for 2,906 (65.4%) of the total.

The state has reported 851 deaths through the first 13 days of December after reporting 1,140 fatal cases in November, which was far and away the deadliest month in Minnesota so far.

Hospitalizations

Hospitalization numbers are not updated at weekends.

Through Dec. 10, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota is 1,461, which is the lowest its been all week and lower than the high point of 1,848 on Nov. 30.

Of those hospitalized, 343 patients were in intensive care and 1,118 are receiving non-ICU treatment.

Here's how many people with COVID-19 were in intensive care by region, through Dec. 10:

Metro: 208 (down from 222 the day before)
Central: 47 (up from 44)
Northeast: 35 (level from 35)
Southeast: 27 (down from 29)
Northwest: 13 (up from 12)
South Central: 7 (up from 4)
West Central: 2 (level from 2)
Southwest: 4 (down from 5)

Statewide, there were 107 (up from 100 the day before) available staffed ICU beds through Dec. 10. These numbers are directly impacted by both the number of patients in ICU (for all health reasons, not just COVID-19) and the number of available staff. You can see the breakdown by region right here/below.

Metro: 43
Central: 17
Northeast: 7
Southeast: 18
Northwest: 5
South Central: 5
West Central: 7
Southwest: 5

Note: Hospital totals are preliminary and are subject to adjustment in the days ahead.

Testing and positivity rates

The 3,439 positive results in Sunday's update were from a total of 48,098 completed tests, creating a daily test positivity rate of 7.15%, the fourth consecutive day that the rate is below 10%.

The World Health Organization recommended in May that a percent positive rate (total positives divided by total completed tests) of below 5% for at least two weeks is necessary to safely reopen the economy. That 5% threshold is based on total positives divided by total tests.

According to Johns Hopkins University, Minnesota's percent positive over the past seven days is 9.91%.

The 48,098 completed tests were from 15,490 people. People are often tested more than once, so the test positivity rate when dividing positives by people tested is 22.2% today.