Here is Minnesota's COVID-19 update for Saturday, April 17

The latest from Minnesota health officials.

Author:: Joe Nelson
Publish date:: Apr 17, 2021

covid, vaccine — Credit: Maryland National Guard via Flickr

Saturday's COVID-19 update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 2,429 new cases and 10 new deaths.

The new deaths increase the state's death toll to 7,005 over the course of the pandemic. Of the total deaths, 61.9% (4,326) were residents of long-term care.

Through April 15, the state reported that 2,241,000 people have received at least 1 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine while 1,563,210 people have completed their vaccine series.

Fifty-one percent of Minnesotans aged 16-plus have received at least one shot, while 85% of the age-65-plus population has had at least one dose of a vaccine. Overall, 40% 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

Hospital data is not updated by the state on the weekend.

Through April 15, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 671, which is down from 699 reported Thursday.

Of those hospitalized, 165 people were in intensive care (down from 168 reported Wednesday) and 506 were receiving non-ICU treatment (down from 531).

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. 15: 671 (506 non-ICU, 165 ICU)

Testing and positivity rates

The 2,429 positive results in Saturday's update were from 41,330 completed tests, creating a test positivity rate of 5.87%.

According to Johns Hopkins University, Minnesota's test positivity rate over the past seven days is 7.16%.

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: 8,804,249 (up from 8,764,206)
People tested: 3,887,322 (up from 3,874,978)
People with at least 1 vaccine shot: 2,241,000 (up from 2,198,635)
People who have completed. vaccine series: 1,563,210 (up from 1,520,040)
Positive cases: 554,536 (up from 552,117)
Deaths: 7,005 – 385 of which are "probable*" (up from 6,995)
Patients no longer requiring isolation: 527,674 (up from 524,915)

* 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.