Minnesota's COVID-19 update for Friday, September 3

The next update will be provided Tuesday, Sept. 7.

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Credit: U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Ryan M. Breeden, via Flickr

Friday's COVID-19 update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 2,138 new cases and five newly reported deaths, all five happening in August.

The state's death toll is 7,844 since the start of the pandemic. Of the total deaths, 58.0% (4,552) were residents of long-term care.

As of Sept. 1, the state reported that 3,327,769 people have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 3,128,568 people have completed the vaccine series. The percentage of Minnesota's population with at least one shot, based on age group:

12-15: 51%
16-17: 58%
18-49: 62%
50-64: 74%
65+: 92%
Total population: 60%

56.2% of Minnesota's total population, including children under the age of 12 who are not eligible for the vaccine, has completed the vaccine series. That jumps to 66.5% when excluding kids under the age of 12. MDH has a public dashboard to track vaccine progress in Minnesota, and you can view it here.

Hospitalizations

Through Sept. 2, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 631 (down from 626 reported Thursday).

Of those hospitalized, 163 people are in intensive care and 463 were in general hospital care. The spring surge saw a high of 202 patients in intensive care and 517 people in general hospital care.

Here's how many people are hospitalized based on regions of Minnesota, though this doesn't mean that each patient contracted the virus in these specific regions, as they may have been diverted depending upon available staffed beds.

Metro: 88 ICU, 258 non-ICU
Central: 25 ICU, 48 non-ICU
Southeast: 28 ICU, 62 non-ICU
Northeast: 10 ICU, 27 non-ICU
Northwest: 6 ICU, 18 non-ICU
South-central: 3 ICU, 30 non-ICU
Southwest: 1 ICU, 15 non-ICU
West-central: 2 ICU, 5 non-ICU

Testing and positivity rates.

The 2,138 positive results in Friday's update were from 35,647 completed tests, creating a test positivity rate of 5.99%.

According to Johns Hopkins University, Minnesota's test positivity rate over the past seven days is 6.58%.

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 keep the economy open.

Coronavirus in Minnesota by the numbers

Total tests: 11,561,040 (up from 11,525,903)
People tested: 5,130,756 (up from 5,112,296)
People with at least 1 vaccine shot: 3,327,769 (up from 3,322,642)
People who have completed vaccine series: 3,128,568 (up from 3,122,523)
Positive cases: 655,418 (up from 653,288)
Deaths: 7,844 – 432 of which are "probable*" (up from 7,839)
Patients no longer requiring isolation: 633,745 (up from 632,808)

* 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.