Here is Minnesota's COVID-19 update for Saturday, May 15

The latest figures from MDH.

Author:
Adam Uren
Publish date:
May 15, 2021

covid, vaccine — Credit: Governor Tom Wolff via Flickr

Saturday's COVID-19 update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 882 new cases and 3 new deaths.

The state's death toll is 7,286 since the start of the pandemic. Of the total deaths, 60% (4,388) were residents of long-term care.

Through May 13, the state reported that 2,707,414 people have received at least 1 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine while 2,294,000 people have completed their vaccine series.

Sixty-one (61) percent of Minnesotans aged 16-plus have received at least one shot, while 88.2% of the age-65-plus population has had at least one dose of a vaccine. Overall, 49% 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

Hospitalization data isn't updated at weekends.

Through May 12, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 464, which is up from 453 reported Thursday.

Of those hospitalized, 123 people were in intensive care and 341 were receiving non-ICU treatment.

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 2: 576 (421 non-ICU, 155 ICU)
May 9: 481 (348 non-ICU, 133 ICU)
May 13: 464 (341 non ICU, 123 ICU)

Testing and positivity rates

The 882 positive results in Saturday's update were from 26,341 completed tests, creating a test positivity rate of 3.34%.

According to Johns Hopkins University, Minnesota's test positivity rate over the past seven days is 4.84%.

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: 9,651,515 (up from 9,625,323)
People tested: 4,167,261 (up from 4,158,571)
People with at least 1 vaccine shot: 2,707,414 (up from 2,694,297)
People who have completed vaccine series: 2,294,000 (up from 2,260,019)
Positive cases: 593,622 (up from 592,750)
Deaths: 7,286 – 402 of which are "probable*" (up from 7,283)
Patients no longer requiring isolation: 576,890 (up from 575,133)

* 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.