COVID In MN: State Crosses 9K Deaths As Positivity Rate Eclipses High Risk Threshold
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- As hospitals in Minnesota fill nearly to capacity, health officials reported 10,913 new COVID-19 cases and 51 more deaths Tuesday.
Those figures include a data lag due to the Veterans Day holiday and weekend.
Minnesota's total deaths attributed to COVID-19 have now reached 9,047. One of the dead reported Tuesday was a teenager in Goodhue County.
The latest numbers from the Minnesota Department of Health bring the total number of people infected to 848,421. Since the start of the pandemic, 9,370 have been reinfected.
Minnesota's latest rolling seven-day average positivity rate is currently sitting at 10.3%, just over the line considered high risk. There are also a reported 67.8 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).
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Minnesota had the worst seven-day case rate (472) per 100,000 in the country as of Sunday afternoon.
Total ICU bed usage among COVID-19 patients is at 307. Additionally, there are currently 1,041 COVID-19 patients being hospitalized in non-ICU beds. The rate of new COVID hospitalizations per 100,000 residents is at 17.1.
Cases of vaccinated people being hospitalized or dying have increased over the course of the year. But the numbers also make it clear the risk of hospitalization and death is still much greater for Minnesotans who aren't fully vaccinated.
In the most recent 10 weeks of state health data, 1,861 vaccinated people were hospitalized. In the 10 weeks leading up to July 4, that number was 222. During the same two periods, there was an increase from 22 vaccinated deaths to 342.
However, Minnesota's rate of deaths for every 100,000 people who aren't fully vaccinated is more than 11 times higher than the rate among the vaccinated group. It's more than 15 times higher for hospitalizations.
"It's very clear that the clear superiority is being vaccinated versus not being vaccinated," Dr. Kevin Best, Allina Health's vice president of medical operations for primary care, said.
As of Thursday, figures from the Minnesota Department of Health showed that about 67.7% of Minnesotans 5 and older had received at least one vaccine dose, and 95.9% of those 65 or older had received at least one dose. In total, the state has administered 7,394,003 doses of vaccine, with about 3.31 million residents having completed their vaccine series.
There have been more than 715,000 vaccine booster shots given to eligible Minnesotans.
In a release, Gov. Tim Walz said as of Sunday, 44,250 children ages 5 to 11 had received a vaccine dose. More than 4,000 of those children were vaccinated at clinics held at Minnesota schools.
