Friday’s COVID-19 update from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) includes 249 new cases and three new deaths.

The state’s death toll is 7,635 since the start of the pandemic. Of the total deaths, 58.8% (4,489) were residents of long-term care.

As of July 13, the state reported that 3,102,958 people have received at least 1 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 2,953,217 people have completed their vaccine series.

The percentage of Minnesota’s population with at least one shot, based on age group:

• 12-15: 39%
• 16-17: 51%
• 18-49: 58%
• 50-64: 72%
• 65+: 91%
• Total population: 56%

53.1% of Minnesota’s total population has completed the vaccine series. MDH has a public dashboard to track vaccine progress in Minnesota, and you can view it here.

Hospitalizations

Through July 14, the number of people with COVID-19 hospitalized in Minnesota was 91. Of those hospitalized, 19 people were in intensive care and 72 were receiving non-ICU treatment.

Hospital admissions involving COVID patients in Minnesota dropped to 223 on March 7 before rising to 699 on April 14. Since that mid-April peak the numbers have dropped precipitously, falling to 440 May 17 and now hovering around 100.

Testing and positivity rates

The 249 positive results in Friday’s update were from 14,837 completed tests, creating a test positivity rate of 1.67%.

According to Johns Hopkins University, Minnesota’s test positivity rate over the past seven days is 1.74%, which has been ticking up as the Delta variant spreads, having recently been below 1%.

The World Health Organization recommends that a percent positive rate (total positives divided by total completed tests) of below 5% for at least two weeks is necessary to safely reopen the economy. That 5% threshold is based on total positives divided by total tests.

Coronavirus in Minnesota by the numbers

• Total tests: 10,478,668 (up from 10,463,856)
• People tested: 4,515,030 (up from 4,508,321)
• People with at least 1 vaccine shot: 3,102,958 (up from 3,099,115)
• People who have completed vaccine series: 2,953,217 (up from 2,948,381)
• Positive cases: 607,524 (up from 607,278)
• Deaths: 7,635 – 422 of which are “probable*” (up from 7,632)
• Patients no longer requiring isolation: 598,427 (up from 598,390)

* Probable deaths are patients who died after testing positive using the COVID-19 antigen test, which is thought to be less accurate than the more common PCR test.