Coronavirus In Minnesota: More Than 500 New COVID-19 Cases Reported
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Just hours before Gov. Tim Walz was set to announce a statewide mandate for face masks in public spaces, Minnesota health officials reported another 507 cases of COVID-19 and four more deaths.
The Minnesota Department of Health said Wednesday the state's death toll is now at 1,552. A graph of the fatalities shows the numbers plateauing, as daily deaths have mostly been in the single digits for about a month. This is a significant decline. Just weeks ago in early June, daily death reports were as high as 33. For perspective, that's about how many people in the state die of COVID-19 in a week.
When deaths were at their peak, the vast majority of victims were patients in long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes. Recently, however, there have been a number of younger people dying. On Monday, health officials reported that a 9-month-old child with no underlying conditions died; on Wednesday, one of the fatalities was an individual in their 20s.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases are continuing to increase in Minnesota with hundreds of new infections reported each day. The state's current tally of total cases is nearing 48,000. Since the start of the outbreak, more than 42,000 patients have recovered and no longer require isolation.
As of Wednesday, 273 people are in Minnesota hospitals batting the infectious disease, with 119 patients in intensive care. In the last 24 hours, seven more patients have entered the ICU.
With the state's increased testing capacity, health officials are keeping an eye on one particular metric: the positivity rate. This metric should drop with increased testing. However, spikes in the rate could detect localized outbreaks.
If the positivity rate climbs to 15% or more than 5% over a two-week period, health officials will consider rolling back Minnesota's COVID-19 restrictions. According to the state's coronavirus response website, the rolling positivity rate average for the first two weeks of July was hovering around 5%.
Several other states, particularly in the south and along the eastern seaboard, have already implemented mask mandates. None of Minnesota's neighboring states have a mask mandate.
