Minnesota's COVID-19 update for Thursday, September 2

The latest on Minnesota's summer surge.

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U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Sara Eshleman via Flickr

Thursday's COVID-19 update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 1,904 new cases and 22 newly reported deaths, 21 of the 22 happening in August (one in July).

The state's death toll is 7,839 since the start of the pandemic. Of the total deaths, 58.0% (4,550) were residents of long-term care.

As of August 30, the state reported that 3,322,642 people have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 3,122,523 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%

56.1% 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 66.4% 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. 1, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 631 (up from 614 reported Wednesday).

Of those hospitalized, 163 people are in intensive care and 468 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: 85 ICU, 269 non-ICU
Central: 27 ICU, 53 non-ICU
Southeast: 29 ICU, 49 non-ICU
Northeast: 10 ICU, 31 non-ICU
Northwest: 7 ICU, 16 non-ICU
South-central: 3 ICU, 26 non-ICU
Southwest: 2 ICU, 17 non-ICU
West-central: 0 ICU, 7 non-ICU

Testing and positivity rates.

The 1,904 positive results in Thursday's update were from 39,538 completed tests, creating a test positivity rate of 4.81%.

According to Johns Hopkins University, Minnesota's test positivity rate over the past seven days is 6.83%.

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: 11,525,903 (up from 11,486,181)
People tested: 5,112,296 (up from 5,094,127)
People with at least 1 vaccine shot: 3,322,642 (up from 3,317,709)
People who have completed vaccine series: 3,122,523 (up from 3,116,298)
Positive cases: 653,288 (up from 651,388)
Deaths: 7,839 – 431 of which are "probable*" (up from 7,817)
Patients no longer requiring isolation: 632,808 (up from 631,796)

* 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.