Here is Minnesota's COVID-19 update for Wednesday, March 3

Wednesday's COVID update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 779 new cases and 17 new deaths.

The newly reported deaths brings the state's total to 6,507 over the course of the pandemic. It is the most deaths reported in a single day's data since Feb. 12.

Of the total deaths, 62.5% (4,064) were residents of long-term care, including 7 of the latest 17 deaths.

Through Mar. 1, the state reported that 928,963 people have received at least 1 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine while 484,383 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 779 positive results in Wednesday's update were from 20,512 completed tests, creating a daily test positivity rate of 3.79%.

According to Johns Hopkins University, Minnesota's test positivity rate over the past seven days is 3.38%.

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: 7,396,423 (up from 7,376,464)
• People tested:  3,484,045 (up from 3,478,891)
• People with at least 1 vaccine shot: 928,963 (up from 908,590)
• People with 2 vaccine shots: 484,383 (up from 472,789)
• Positive cases: 486,434 (up from 485,655)
• Deaths: 6,507 – 272 of which are "probable*" (up from 6,490)
• Patients no longer requiring isolation: 473,252 (up from 472,470)

* 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.