Minnesota's COVID-19 update for Wednesday, January 26

Wednesday's COVID-19 update from the Minnesota Department of Health includes 15,572 newly reported cases and 52 newly reported deaths. The state's COVID-19 death toll is now 11,282.

Today's update includes case data that was reported in a 24-hour period ending at 4 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 24. But due to the omicron surge overloading the health department, there remains approximately 23,700 positive tests that are yet to be processed and included in the daily reports. As you can see in the graph below, the green represents the dates when the yet-to-be-processed tests were taken.

Last week, the Mayo Clinic held a press briefing in which it said it expects the reported cases to remain high before peaking, perhaps this week. However, because reported cases lag what's happening in real time, the omicron wave may have already peaked in Minnesota.

Minnesota's test positivity rate on a 7-day rolling average (through Jan. 14) was 22.9%, having been as high as 23.7% on Jan. 21. Anything over 10% puts Minnesota in the high-risk threshold for community transmission of the coronavirus.

Hospitalizations

Through Jan. 25, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 1,553 – up from the 1,507 reported on Jan. 24. Of those hospitalized, 227 people are in intensive care (down from 228) and 1,326 are in non-ICU care (up from 1,279).

The most ICU patients during the duration of the pandemic was 399 on Dec. 1, 2020.

The latest hospital capacity data shows there are 28 staffed adult ICU beds available in the entire state – down from 34 on Jan. 24 – and 15 pediatric ICU beds available, which is down from 17 on Jan. 24.

Vaccine, booster stats

As of Jan. 24, the state reported that 3,828,368 people have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 3,585,745 people have completed the vaccine series. The state has administered 2,001,267 third doses/booster shots.

The percentage of Minnesota's population with at least one shot, based on age group:

• 5-11: 37%
• 12-15: 64%
• 16-17: 67%
• 18-49: 71%
• 50-64: 80%
• 65+: 97%
• Total population: 68.8%

The percentage of Minnesota's population that have completed the vaccine series, based on age group:

• 5-11: 29%
• 12-15: 59%
• 16-17: 63%
• 18-49: 66%
• 50-64: 77%
• 65+: 93%
• Total population: 64.5%

Coronavirus in Minnesota by the numbers

• Total tests: 17,751,532 (up from 17,698,075)
• People with at least 1 vaccine shot: 3,825,849 (up from 3,825,849)
• People who have completed vaccine series: 3,583,371 (up from 3,583,371)
• People who have had a booster/3rd shot: 1,993,618 (up from 1,993,618)
• Positive cases: 1,280,500 (up from 1,264,935)
• Reinfection cases: 43,567 (up from 41,935)
• Deaths: 11,282 – 689 of which are "probable*" (up from 11,230)
• Patients no longer requiring isolation: 1,222,393 (up from 1,211,499)

* 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.