Here is Minnesota's COVID-19 update for Wednesday, Feb. 24

Wednesday's COVID update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 754 new cases and nine new deaths.

The newly reported death brings the state's total to 6,443 over the course of the pandemic. It's the second consecutive day that a single death was reported.

Of the total deaths, 62.7% (4,040) were residents of long-term care, including two of the latest nine deaths.

Through Feb. 22, the state reported that 770,021 people have received at least 1 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine while 370,981 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. 23, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 292 – up from 269 on Monday and 235 on Sunday.

Of those hospitalized, 59 are in intensive care and 233 are receiving non-ICU treatment. 

Testing and positivity rates

The 754 positive results in Tuesday's update were from only 19,822 completed tests, creating a daily test positivity rate of 3.8%.

According to Johns Hopkins University, Minnesota's test positivity rate over the past seven days is 3.26%. 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: 7,207,381 (up from  7,187,985)
• People tested: 3,430,620 (up from 3,425,265)
• People with at least 1 vaccine shot: 770,021 (up from 762,089)
• People with 2 vaccine shots: 370,981 (up from 362,156)
• Positive cases: 480,845 (up from 480,091)
• Deaths: 6,443 – 270 of which are "probable*" (up from 6,434)
• Patients no longer requiring isolation: 469,969 (up from 467,147)

* 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.