Here is Minnesota's COVID-19 update for Monday, May 3

The latest on Minnesota's COVID situation.

Author:: Joe Nelson
Publish date:: May 3, 2021

coronavirus, covid-19 — Credit: Arkansas National Guard via Flickr

Monday's COVID-19 update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 1,105 new cases and three new deaths.

The state's death toll is 7,163 since the start of the pandemic. Of the total deaths, 61% (4,370) were residents of long-term care.

Through May 1, the state reported that 2,585,053 people have received at least 1 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine while 1,984,517 people have completed their vaccine series.

Fifty-nine percent of Minnesotans aged 16-plus have received at least one shot, while 87% of the age-65-plus population has had at least one dose of a vaccine. Overall, 46% of the state's population has had at least one dose.

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

Hospitalizations

Through May 2, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 576, which is down from the 619 reported Friday and continues a downward trend since mid-April.

Of those hospitalized, 155 people were in intensive care (down from 166 reported Friday) and 421 were receiving non-ICU treatment (down from 453).

Here's how Minnesota's hospital admissions have progressed since Mar. 7.

Mar. 7: 223 (177 non-ICU, 46 ICU)
Mar. 13: 255 (194 non-ICU, 61 ICU)
Mar. 20: 324 (246 non-ICU, 78 ICU)
Mar. 27: 356 (264 non-ICU, 92 ICU)
Apr. 2: 439 (337 non-ICU, 112 ICU)
Apr. 8: 595 (461 non-ICU, 134 ICU)
Apr. 14: 699 (531 non-ICU, 168 ICU)
Apr. 20: 676 (483 non-ICU, 193 ICU)
Apr. 26: 641 (457 non-ICU, 184 ICU)
May : 576 (421 non-ICU, 155 ICU)

Testing and positivity rates

The 1,105 positive results in Monday's update were from 20,527 completed tests, creating a test positivity rate of 5.38%.

According to Johns Hopkins University, Minnesota's test positivity rate over the past seven days is 5.84%.

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: 9,327,363 (up from 9,306,211)
People tested: 4,061,256 (up from 4,053,093)
People with at least 1 vaccine shot: 2,585,053 (up from 2,574,895)
People who have completed. vaccine series: 1,984,517 (up from 1,972,888)
Positive cases: 580,340 (up from 579,235)
Deaths: 7,163 – 394 of which are "probable*" (up from 7,160)
Patients no longer requiring isolation: 559,036 (up from 557,099)

* 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.