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

The latest figures from MDH.

Author:
Joe Nelson
Publish date:
May 19, 2021

covid-19, coronavirus, PPE — Minnesota National Guard via Flickr

Wednesday's COVID-19 update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 658 new cases and 15 new deaths.

The state's death toll is 7,325 since the start of the pandemic. Of the total deaths, 60% (4,395) were residents of long-term care.

Through May 17, the state reported that 2,748,383 people have received at least 1 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine while 2,369,346 people have completed their vaccine series.

Sixty-two (62) percent of Minnesotans aged 16-plus have received at least one shot, while 88.4% of the age-65-plus population has had at least one dose of a vaccine. Overall, 49.2% of the state's population has had at least one dose.

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

Hospitalizations

Through May 18, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 420. Of those hospitalized, 112 people were in intensive care and 308 were receiving non-ICU treatment.

Here's how Minnesota's hospital admissions have progressed since Mar. 7.

Mar. 7: 223 (177 non-ICU, 46 ICU)
Mar. 13: 255 (194 non-ICU, 61 ICU)
Mar. 20: 324 (246 non-ICU, 78 ICU)
Mar. 27: 356 (264 non-ICU, 92 ICU)
Apr. 2: 439 (337 non-ICU, 112 ICU)
Apr. 8: 595 (461 non-ICU, 134 ICU)
Apr. 14: 699 (531 non-ICU, 168 ICU)
Apr. 20: 676 (483 non-ICU, 193 ICU)
Apr. 26: 641 (457 non-ICU, 184 ICU)
May 2: 576 (421 non-ICU, 155 ICU)
May 9: 481 (348 non-ICU, 133 ICU)
May 17: 440 (328 non-ICU, 112 ICU)
May 18: 420 (308 non-ICU, 112 ICU)

Testing and positivity rates

The 658 positive results in Wednesday's update were from 17,546 completed tests, creating a test positivity rate of 3.75%.

According to Johns Hopkins University, Minnesota's test positivity rate over the past seven days is 4.32%.

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: 9,723,028 (up from 9,705,888)
People tested: 4,192,551 (up from 4,186,442)
People with at least 1 vaccine shot: 2,748,383 (up from 2,739,423)
People who have completed vaccine series: 2,369,346 (up from 2,340,582)
Positive cases: 596,186 (up from 595,532)
Deaths: 7,325 – 406 of which are "probable*" (up from 7,310)
Patients no longer requiring isolation: 581,861 (up from 580,838)

* 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.