Here is Minnesota's COVID-19 update for Tuesday, Feb. 23

Tuesday's COVID update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 500 new cases and one new death.

The newly reported death brings the state's total to 6,434 over the course of the pandemic. It's the second consecutive day that a single death was reported.

Of the total deaths, 62.7% (4,038) were residents of long-term care.

Through Feb. 21, the state reported that 762,089 people have received at least 1 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine while 362,156 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.

Hospitalizations

Through Feb. 22, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 269 – down from 235 on Sunday.

Of those hospitalized, 54 were in intensive care and 215 were receiving non-ICU treatment.

Testing and positivity rates

The 500 positive results in Tuesday's update were from only 9,498 completed tests, creating a daily test positivity rate of 5.26%. The data usually reported on Tuesdays however is known for anomalous results compared to the days preceding and following them.

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: 7,187,985 (up from  7,178,713)
• People tested: 3,425,265 (up from 3,422,813)
• People with at least 1 vaccine shot: 762,089 (up from 759,747)
• People with 2 vaccine shots: 362,156 (up from 356,911)
• Positive cases: 480,091 (up from 479,591)
• Deaths: 6,434 – 270 of which are "probable*" (up from 6,433)
• Patients no longer requiring isolation: 467,147 (up from 466,311)

* 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.