Here is Minnesota's COVID-19 update for Tuesday, March 2

Tuesday's COVID update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 425 new cases and four new deaths.

The newly reported deaths brings the state's total to 6,490 over the course of the pandemic.

Of the total deaths, 62.6% (4,057) were residents of long-term care, including one of the latest four deaths.

Through Feb. 28, the state reported that 908,590 people have received at least 1 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine while 472,789 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 Mar. 1, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 243, up from 230 on Feb. 28.

Of those hospitalized, 57 are in intensive care (up from 47) and 186 are receiving non-ICU treatment (up from 183).

Testing and positivity rates

The 425 positive results in Tuesday's update were from 10,915 completed tests, creating a daily test positivity rate of 3.89%.

Tuesday often feature unusual figures compared to other days due to reporting lags from over the weekend.

According to Johns Hopkins University, Minnesota's test positivity rate over the past seven days is 3.45%, which has ticked up slightly over the past week.

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: 7,376,464 (up from 7,365,792)
• People tested: 3,478,891 (up from 3,476,724)
• People with at least 1 vaccine shot: 908,590 (up from 902,242)
• People with 2 vaccine shots: 472,789 (up from 467,300)
• Positive cases: 485,655 (up from 485,230)
• Deaths: 6,490 – 271 of which are "probable*" (up from 6,486)
• Patients no longer requiring isolation: 472,470 (up from 471,647)

* 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.