Dec. 5 COVID-19 update: Deaths nearing 4,000 in Minnesota

75 more deaths were reported Saturday.

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coronavirus, covid-19 — Credit: Noor Joonas / Central Health Laboratory via Flickr

Minnesota's COVID-19 death toll is quickly approaching 4,000 after the state health department reported 75 more deaths in Saturday's situation report. That brings the number of fatal cases from the disease caused by the coronavirus to 3,920.

The state has reported 327 deaths through the first five days of December for an average of approximately 65 fatal cases per day.

Saturday's update included 40 more fatal cases of residents of long-term care facilities, which have accounted for 2,599 of the 3,920 total deaths.

Among the newly reported deaths was a person from Ramsey County aged 35-39, marking the 27th fatal case in Minnesota involving someone in their 30s. There have been 84 deaths of people under the age of 50 in Minnesota.

Hospitalizations

Hospital numbers are not updated by the state on weekends.

Through Dec. 3, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota is 1,679, which is a drop from 1,770 in Thursday's report. Of those hospitalized, 367 patients were in intensive care and 1,312 are receiving non-ICU treatment.

Here's how many people with COVID-19 were in intensive care by region, through Dec. 3:

Metro: 232
Central: 45
Northeast: 34
Southeast: 28
Northwest: 15
South Central: 8
West Central: 4
Southwest: 1

Statewide, there were 106 available staffed ICU beds through Dec. 3. You can see the breakdown by region right here/below.

Metro: 38
Central: 12
Northeast: 12
Southeast: 21
Northwest: 4
South Central: 2
West Central: 8
Southwest: 9

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

Testing and positivity rates

The 6,337 positive results in Saturday's update were from a total of 52,822 completed tests, creating a daily test positivity rate of 12.00%.

Those completed tests were from 18,075 people. People are often tested more than once, so the test positivity rate when dividing positives by people tested is 35.06% 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 10.99%.