COVID In Minnesota: Average Positivity Rate Down To 10.4%, 1,501 New Cases Reported
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The state's COVID-19 average positivity rate has dropped to 10.4% after reaching a peak of 24% in late January.
State health officials report an additional 1,501 virus cases and 41 deaths on Wednesday. Six of the deaths took place last month. One of the people who died was experiencing homelessness, the Minnesota Department of Health says.
Case growth and hospitalization rates have also been dropping since mid-January, and as of last week, there are roughly 49 new cases per 100,000 residents and 17.5 hospitalizations per 100,000 residents. Those figures stood at 245.4 and 29.7 respectively when the virus was at its height.
Still, staffed adult ICU beds are in short supply in the metro area, with 3% available. MDH says 130 people were in intensive care and 703 were in non-ICU hospital beds as of Tuesday afternoon across the state. Overall, 59,621 people have been hospitalized since the start of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, 74.2% of the state's eligible population has received at least one vaccine dose. Minnesota has administered over 9.3 million vaccines, including over 2.1 million boosters.
Health officials say that there have been 1,400,624 cases of COVID-19 since March of 2020, including over 56,000 reinfections. In all, 11,903 Minnesotans have died due to the virus.