COVID In Minnesota: 46 More Deaths Reported, Positivity Rate At 10.6%
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - A year after the first COVID-19 vaccines were administered in Minnesota, state health officials on Tuesday reported 9,042 new cases of COVID-19 and 46 deaths.
In all, 9,964 Minnesotans have died of the virus since March of 2020. Of the deaths reported Tuesday, four were people in their 30s. According to the Minnesota Department of Health, the state has seen 969,450 cases of COVID-19, including 11,583 reinfections.
The seven-day average positivity rate is still above the "high risk" threshold at 10.6% as of Dec. 6, though the figure has declined in the past few days. Still, the state is seeing 76.6 new cases per 100,000 residents and a hospitalization rate of 23.6 per 100,000 residents.
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Hospitalizations are as high as they were in November of 2020. As of Monday afternoon, there were 352 people in ICU beds with the virus, and 1,284 in non-ICU beds. Staffed ICU bed availability for adults is down to single digits all across Minnesota. For pediatric ICU beds, there are eight beds available in the metro.
Meanwhile, MDH says that 66.5% of Minnesotans have at least one vaccine dose, and 62.2% have completed the vaccine series. Twenty-seven percent of 5- to 11-year-olds have their first vaccine dose.
On Tuesday, Pfizer announced results from studies testing their COVID-19 antiviral pills, confirming that the drug cut the risk of hospitalization or death for high-risk patients by 89% when treated within the first three days of their symptoms. Early lab testing revealed the drug would likely be effective against all variants of concern, including the newly-discovered Omicron variant.