Here is Minnesota's COVID-19 update for Sunday, Feb. 21

Sunday's COVID update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 879 new cases and nine new deaths.

The newly reported deaths bring the state's total to 6,432 over the course of the pandemic. Of those deaths, 62.7% (4,037) were residents of long-term care, including four of the nine reported Sunday.

Through Feb. 19, the state reported that 754,602 people have received at least 1 dose of the a COVID-19 vaccine while 341,332 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.

Two new variants of the coronavirus have been confirmed in Minnesota, including what was the first known case of the Brazil P.1 variant in the United States. That case involves a Minnesotan who traveled to Brazil. There are 8 confirmed cases of the B.1.1.7 variant. Both new strains are believed to be more transmissible.

Hospitalizations

Hospital data is not updated at weekends.

Testing and positivity rates

The 879 positive results in Sunday's update were from a total of 28,676 completed tests, creating a daily test positivity rate of 3.06%.

According to Johns Hopkins University, Minnesota's test positivity rate over the past seven days is 3.24%. It's around the same rate Minnesota had in September before a surge in cases boosted the rate to above 15% in November.

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: 7,161,046 (up from 7,132,441)
• People tested: 3,417,125 (up from 3,406,347)
• People with at least 1 vaccine shot: 754,602 (up from 742,760)
• People with 2 vaccine shots: 341,332 (up from 315,284)
• Positive cases: 479,036 (up from 478,157)
• Deaths: 6,432 – 270 of which are "probable*" (up from 6,423)
• Patients no longer requiring isolation: 465,382 (up from 464,504)

* 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.