COVID In Minnesota: 4,511 Newly Reported Cases Over The Weekend; 44 More Deaths
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- As the world reacts to the news of the new Omicron variant of the virus, the state's health department reports that there have been 4,511 newly reported positive cases of COVID-19 and 44 newly reported deaths.
Minnesota's latest rolling seven-day average positivity rate has ticked down a notch, currently sitting at 10.9% from a recent peak of 11%. That's still, however, above the line considered "high risk," which is drawn at 10%. There are also a reported 76 daily new cases per 100,000 Minnesota residents, which puts the state well above the line considered high risk (which is all the way down at 10 per 100,000).
According to the Minnesota Department of Health's daily update, the state's total number of people who have been infected by COVID has risen to 889,628 since the pandemic began, with 9,382 deaths attributed to the virus. Health officials say 10,111 have been reinfected since the start of the pandemic.
Hospitalizations remain about as high as they've been outside of November and December of last year. Total ICU bed usage among COVID-19 patients is at 340. Additionally, there are currently 1,127 COVID-19 patients being hospitalized in non-ICU beds. The rate of new COVID hospitalizations per 100,000 residents is at 21.7%.
Hospitals across the state are making a desperate plea for the public's help. Most parts of the state have only single-digit figures for staffed ICU beds for adult patients. The same goes for beds intended for children.
As of Thursday morning, figures from the Minnesota Department of Health showed that about 69.7% of Minnesotans 5 and older had received at least one vaccine dose, and 96.2% of those 65 or older had received at least one dose. In total, the state has administered 7,728,861 doses of vaccine, with about 3.35 million residents having completed their vaccine series.
There have been more than 932,000 vaccine booster shots given to eligible Minnesotans.
A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the number of cumulative deaths as the number of newly reported cases. It has been corrected.