Here is Minnesota's COVID-19 update for Thursday, September 17
Nine more deaths in Thursday's COVID-19 update from the Minnesota Department of Health brings the state's total death count since the start of the pandemic to 1,942, including 1,408 patients who were residents of long-term care facilities.
Six of the nine newly reported deaths in Thursday's report were residents of long-term care facilities. One of the dead was a person age 40-44 from Hennepin County. The others were in their 60s (1), 70s (1), 80s (1) and 90s (5).
Thursday's update includes 931 new positive tests for the coronavirus, 22 of which have been removed for an official count of 909 cases. Those positives are the result of 11,154 people tested, creating a 24-hour reporting period test positivity rate of 8.15%.
The positive test rate is lower from the perspective when the number of individuals producing positive tests (909) divided by total completed tests (19,743). In that case, the positivity rate is 4.60%.
The "tests completed" number is always higher than the "people tested" metric because some people get tested multiple times and those who test positive are only counted once, so it produces a less accurate positivity rate.
The test positivity rate over a 7-day average, based on total number of people tested, according to Johns Hopkins University, was 8.18% as of Wednesday. Anything over 5% can indicate more aggressive community transmission, MDH officials say.
Coronavirus in Minnesota by the numbers:
- Total tests: 1,763,735 (up from 1,743,611)
- People tested: 1,263,546 (up from 1,252,392)
- Positive cases: 86,722 (up from 85,813)
- Deaths: 1,942 (up from 1,933)
- Currently hospitalized: 242 (down from 244)
- Patients in intensive care: 132 (down from 136)
- Patients no longer requiring isolation: 79,878 (up from 79,583)
There have also been 52 deaths where COVID-19 is listed by doctors as the "probable" cause, though it's not included in the official COVID-19 death toll.
