COVID In Minnesota: As Cases Dwindle, Community Spread Now Prime Source Of New Infections
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Thursday's updated figures from the Minnesota Department of Health show infection and hospitalization trends continuing to plummet across the board, though there were 142 newly confirmed cases after two straight days of double-digit increases.
However, community spread continues to grow, rising to levels as high as have ever been reported since the start of the pandemic, with 51.5% of cases reported with no known source of exposure.
The health department reports that the rolling average positivity rate is now at 1.8%, well below the threshold for increased caution. There are also a reported 3.4 daily new cases per 100,000 Minnesota residents, which is as low as that figure has been since April 2020, when restrictions were high statewide.
Hospitalization figures are also continuing to track down significantly. The latest figures of those hospitalized show 44 Minnesotans in ICU. There are an additional 108 reported hospitalizations for COVID in the state. The figures show an average of 3.5 new daily hospitalizations per 100,000 residents, which is below the line of caution.
On Thursday, the state health department reported 142 newly confirmed positive cases and four new deaths due to the virus in the last 24 hours, from about 24,834 newly completed tests. Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 604,184 positive cases and 7,527 deaths.
As of Thursday morning, the latest figures from the Minnesota Department of Health showed that about 66% of Minnesotans 16 or older had received at least one dose, and 90% of those 65 or older had received at least one dose.
In total, the state has administered 5,561,729 doses of vaccine, and has also reached about 2.79 million residents having completed their vaccine series.
According to MDH, since the pandemic began, more than 4.26 million Minnesotans have been tested.