COVID In Minnesota: As Christmas Approaches, Avg. Positivity Rate Dips Below Line Of High Risk
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- With news from Moderna that a booster dose of its coronavirus vaccine appeared to significantly increase antibodies that can help fight off an infection with the Omicron variant, the Minnesota Department of Health reports that there have been 3,397 newly reported positive cases of COVID-19, along with another 45 deaths.
Minnesota's latest rolling seven-day average positivity rate is at 9.6%, which is now below the line the state considers "high risk," although still well into the zone designated for "caution."
There are also a reported 60.1 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) but significantly down from previous weeks.
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 970,556 since the pandemic began, with 10,156 deaths attributed to the virus. Health officials say 12,108 have been reinfected since the start of the pandemic.
Hospitalizations remain about as high as they've been since November of last year. Total ICU bed usage among COVID-19 patients is at 366. Additionally, there are currently 1,119 COVID-19 patients being hospitalized in non-ICU beds. The rate of new COVID hospitalizations per 100,000 residents is at 23.8. Unlike the positivity rate and number of new cases per capita, this figure is not currently showing signs of waning.
All parts of the state have only single-digit figures for staffed ICU beds for adult patients.
As of Monday morning, figures from the Minnesota Department of Health showed that about 71.3% of Minnesotans 5 and older had received at least one vaccine dose, and 96.7% of those 65 or older had received at least one dose. In total, the state has administered 8,439,859 doses of vaccine, with about 3.48 million residents having completed their vaccine series.
There have been more than 1.5 million vaccine booster shots given to eligible Minnesotans.