Here is Minnesota's COVID-19 update for Saturday, May 8
Saturday's COVID-19 update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 1,321 new cases and eight new deaths.
The state's death toll is 7,224 since the start of the pandemic. Of the total deaths, 61% (4,377) were residents of long-term care, including one of the latest 11 deaths.
Through May 6, the state reported that 2,641,346 people have received at least 1 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine while 2,186,486 people have completed their vaccine series, though these figures have barely changed since yesterday's update, suggesting there may be a data reporting lag.
Sixty (60) percent of Minnesotans aged 16-plus have received at least one shot, while 88% of the age-65-plus population has had at least one dose of a vaccine. Overall, 47% 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 numbers are not updated on weekends.
Through May 6, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 560, which is down from the 565 reported Thursday and continues a downward trend since mid-April.
Of those hospitalized, 144 people were in intensive care (down from 152 reported Thursday) and 416 were receiving non-ICU treatment (up from 413).
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 6: 560 (416 non-ICU, 144 ICU)
Testing and positivity rates
The 1,321 positive results in Saturday's update were from 32,699 completed tests, creating a test positivity rate of 4.03%.
According to Johns Hopkins University, Minnesota's test positivity rate over the past seven days is 5.54%.
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: 9,477,892 (up from 9,445,432)
- People tested: 4,108,262 (up from 4,099,069)
- People with at least 1 vaccine shot: 2,641,346 (up from 2,628,225)
- People who have completed vaccine series: 2,106,486 (up from 2,069,779)
- Positive cases: 585,677 (up from 585,677)
- Deaths: 7,224 – 395 of which are "probable*" (up from 7,216)
- Patients no longer requiring isolation: 566,438 (up from 564,326)
* 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.