Here is Minnesota's COVID-19 update for Friday, August 21

The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 is below 300 again.

Author:
Joe Nelson
Publish date:
Aug 21, 2020

coronavirus — U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Sara Eshleman, via Flickr

More than 800 new cases of COVID-19 and eight newly reported deaths are included in Friday's daily update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH).

The eight deaths include are from Dakota, Hennepin, Nicollet, Ramsey and Scott counties.

Dakota: 1 death (age 85-89)
Hennepin: 2 deaths (ages 70-74, 80-84)
Nicollet: 1 death (age 75-79)
Ramsey: 2 deaths (ages 70-74, 80-84)
Scott: 2 deaths (ages 45-49, 65-69)

Overall, 1,302 of Minnesota's 1,753 COVID-19 deaths have been residents of long-term care or assisted-living facilities, whom the CDC says are more vulnerable to severe illness from the virus.

The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 decreased from 309 Thursday to 296 Friday, with the ICU total also dropping from 146 to 136 patients.

Friday's update includes 835 new cases of the coronavirus, 10 of which have been removed for an official count of 825. Those positive cases are the result of 11,444 people tested, creating a 24-hour reporting period test positivity rate of 7.21%.

The daily positive test rate is lower from the perspective of positive results (825) divided by total completed tests (18,630). In that case, the positivity rate is 4.43%. The tests completed number is always higher than the people tested because some people get tested multiple times.

The test positivity rate over a 7-day average, based on total number of people tested, according to Johns Hopkins University, was 6.44% as of Thursday.

"If you go above 5 percent it indicates that you may be heading back into a phase of more rapid spread of the disease," said MDH Commissioner Jan Malcolm.

Coronavirus in Minnesota by the numbers:

Total tests: 1,340,850 (up from 1,322,220)
People tested: 1,041,537 (up from 1,030,093)
Positive cases: 68,133 (up from 67,308)
Deaths: 1,753 (up from 1,745)
Currently hospitalized: 296 (down from 309)
Patients in intensive care: 136 (down from 148)
Patients no longer requiring isolation: 60,920 (up from 60,605)

There have also been 46 deaths where COVID-19 is listed by doctors as the "probable" cause, though it's not included in the official COVID-19 death toll.

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Note: Previous BMTN updates have shown the test positivity rate based on total number of completed tests, whereas going forward the daily test positivity rate will be based on positive results from total number of people tested (some patients are tested multiple times, which drives up the testing total).