Dec. 3 COVID-19 update: 92 deaths marks Minnesota's second-highest total

The deaths continue to surge amid the worst of the pandemic so far.

Author:: Joe Nelson
Publish date:: Dec 3, 2020

coronavirus, COVID-19 test — Minnesota National Guard

Deaths from COVID-19 continue to surge in Minnesota as the state health department on Thursday reported 92 fatal cases, marking the second-highest single-day total (101 the highest) since the beginning of the pandemic.

There have been 206 deaths reported Monday-Thursday this week. Last week there were 280 deaths reported Monday-Friday.

The death toll from the virus is now at 3,784. Of those, 2,522 fatal cases involved residents of long-term care facilities, including 48 of the 92 newly reported deaths Thursday.

Hospitalizations

Through Dec. 2, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota is 1,770, which is jump from 1,704 reported the day prior. Of those hospitalized, 376 patients were in intensive care and 1,394 are receiving non-ICU treatment.

Statewide, there are 102 available staffed ICU beds. You can see the breakdown by region right here.

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

Testing and positivity rates

The 6,166 positive results in Thursday's update were from a total of 50,718 completed tests, creating a daily test positivity rate of 12.15%.

Those completed tests were from 20,069 people. People are often tested more than once, so the test positivity rate when dividing positives by people tested is 30.72% today.

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 11.05%.