Here is Minnesota's COVID-19 update for Friday, March 5
Friday's COVID update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 796 new cases and 13 new deaths.
The newly reported deaths brings the state's total to 6,534 over the course of the pandemic.
Of the total deaths, 62.3% (4,076) were residents of long-term care, including six of the latest 13.
Through Mar. 3, the state reported that 975,781 people have received at least 1 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine while 516,422 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. 4, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 224, down from 243 on Mar. 1.
Of those hospitalized, 57 are in intensive care (level from Mar. 1) and 167 are receiving non-ICU treatment (down from 186).
Testing and positivity rates
The 796 positive results in Friday's update were from 37,165 completed tests, creating a daily test positivity rate of 2.14%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, Minnesota's test positivity rate over the past seven days is 2.88%
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: 7,502,722 (up from 7,465,199)
- People tested: 3,507,277 (up from 3,499,299)
- People with at least 1 vaccine shot: 975,781 (up from 948,127)
- People with 2 vaccine shots: 516,422 (up from 500,188)
- Positive cases: 488,170 (up from 487,374)
- Deaths: 6,534 – 273 of which are "probable*" (up from 6,521)
- Patients no longer requiring isolation: 474,175 (up from 473,728)
* 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.
