Here is Minnesota's COVID-19 update for Wednesday, March 31

BMTN provides a COVID-19 update at 11 a.m. seven days a week.

Author:: Joe Nelson
Publish date:: Mar 31, 2021

covid-19, coronavirus — Credit: Navy Medicine via Flickr

Wednesday's COVID update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 1,660 new cases and 12 new deaths.

The 12 new deaths increases the state's death toll to (6,848) over the course of the pandemic. Of the total deaths, 62.4% (4,275) were residents of long-term care.

Through Mar. 29, the state reported that 1,658,176 people have received at least 1 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine while 1,031,749 people have completed their vaccine series.

Thirty-eight percent of Minnesotans aged 16-plus have received at least one shot.

MDH has a public dashboard to track vaccine progress in Minnesota, and you can view it here.

Hospitalizations

Through Mar. 30, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 411, which is up from 357 reported Tuesday.

Of those hospitalized through Mar. 30, 102 people were in intensive care (up from 89 reported Tuesday) and 309 were receiving non-ICU treatment (up from 268).

Testing and positivity rates

The 1,660 positive results in Wednesday's update were from 22,481 completed tests, creating a daily test positivity rate of 7.38%

According to Johns Hopkins University, Minnesota's test positivity rate over the past seven days is 5.91%.

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: 8,211,019 (up from 8,189,529)
People tested: 3,689,024 (up from 3,683,495)
People with at least 1 vaccine shot: 1,658,176 (up from 1,637,771)
People who have completed. vaccine series: 1,031,749 (up from 1,003,316)
Positive cases: 519,529 (up from 517,881)
Deaths: 6,848 – 375 of which are "probable*" (up from 6,836)
Patients no longer requiring isolation: 499,395 (up from 498,103)

* 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.