Here is Minnesota's COVID-19 update for Friday, Mar. 12

The state health department provides updated information daily at 11 a.m.

Author:
Joe Nelson
Publish date:
Mar 12, 2021

Friday's COVID update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 1,107 new cases and 13 new deaths.

The newly reported deaths brings the state's total to 6,737 over the course of the pandemic. Of the total deaths, 63% (4,237) were residents of long-term care, including six of the latest 13 deaths.

Through Mar. 10, the state reported that 1,163,483 people have received at least 1 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine while 660,019 people have completed both doses of vaccine that are required for the vaccines' maximum effect.

MDH has a public dashboard to track vaccine progress in Minnesota, and you can view it here.

Hospitalizations

Through Mar. 11, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 240, which is up from 236 reported Thursday.

Of those hospitalized, 66 are in intensive care (up from 63) and 174 are receiving non-ICU treatment (up from 173).

Testing and positivity rates

The 1,107 positive results in Friday's update were from 35,085 completed tests, creating a daily test positivity rate of 3.15%.

According to Johns Hopkins University, Minnesota's test positivity rate over the past seven days is 3.15%.

The World Health Organization recommends 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.

Coronavirus in Minnesota by the numbers

Total tests: 7,697,306 (up from 7,663,467)
People tested: 3,539,470 (up from 3,537,474)
People with at least 1 vaccine shot: 1,163,483 (up from 1,129,967)
People with 2 vaccine shots: 660,019 (up from 642,701)
Positive cases: 495,208 (up from 494,106)
Deaths: 6,737 – 369 of which are "probable*" (up from 6,724)
Patients no longer requiring isolation: 480,133 (up from 479,713)

* 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.