LiveUpdate: Minnesota COVID-19 Case Counts and Trends

St. Paul, Minnesota —

• Pfizer vaccine began to be administered in the state
• MDH believes that the governor’s restrictions helped prevent the spread during Thanksgiving

MDH Infectious Diseases Director Kris Ehresmann said this week will focus on educating healthcare providers on how to administer the COVID vaccine. This happens at the same time as the next batch of state vaccines arrives over the weekend. Ehresmann said the vaccine has already begun to be administered in the state.

The vaccine currently in use is the Pfizer vaccine, but the Moderna vaccine will receive urgent approval from the FDA this week, Eresman said.

Providers are set to receive more Moderna vaccine once approved compared to Pfizer vaccine.

COVID-19 cases and deaths across Minnesota continued to decline on Tuesday, but test counts also declined across the state.

According to the Minnesota Department of Health, a total of 2,340 coronaviruses have been added to the state over the past day, based on the results of 32,117 tests (30,811 PCR, 1,306 antigens) processed in private and state laboratories. I did. Health officials consider a positive PCR test to be a definitive case of COVID-19, and a positive antigen test is labeled as a possible case.

The number of these tests is significantly lower than the 45,341 tests reported on Monday.

The new positivity has brought the total number of Minnesota virus cases to 384,164 since the pandemic arrived. Of these cases, 10,672 are based on antigen testing.

In the last 24 hours, an additional 21 deaths from the virus have been reported. The death toll reported on Tuesday has brought the total number of deaths in Minnesota to 4,483 since the outbreak of the pandemic.

The total number of hospitalizations since the outbreak of the pandemic has now reached 19,785, of which 4,286 require ICU care.

Currently, 1,009 beds in hospitals throughout the state are being used to treat COVID patients, and the number is gradually declining. There are 300 people in the ICU throughout Minnesota, with a total of 1,309 patients being treated for the virus.

At Twin Cities, non-ICU beds are becoming more available, with 4.9% of beds open on Tuesday. However, the number of ICU beds available in the metro has declined slightly, with only 7% currently open.

In Minnesota, young adults have the highest number of COVID cases, with 39,657 and 3 deaths between the ages of 20 and 24, and 34,613 and 5 deaths between the ages of 25 and 29. Thirty-34 people recorded 32,002 cases and nine died.

The largest group of deaths is between the ages of 85 and 89, with 5,035 cases and 837 deaths.

Hennepin County has the highest COVID activity in the state, with 80,287 and 1,252 deaths, Ramsey County with 34,300 and 593 deaths, Dakota County with 27,615 and 237 deaths, and Anoka County with 27,003 and 265 deaths. Is dead.

Cook County, northeastern Minnesota, reports the lowest COVID activity in 97 cases and 0 deaths.

At a press conference on Monday afternoon, Minnesota Health Department (MDH) Commissioner Jan Malcolm said it was encouraged to check the number of beds in use as COVIDs are declining across the state. .. But Minnesota isn’t “out of the woods,” she added, with the virus still killing the entire state.

Malcolm also said that there are still “many viruses” out there, and that Minnesota will continue to follow guidelines such as masking and social distance to continue and accelerate the improvement rates the state is seeing. Said it was important.

“We believe Minnesota can take this seriously and see the effect of keeping those mitigations in mind, and we appreciate it,” she says. I did. “We want people to remain very vigilant and help us survive this period in the best possible way for our loved ones in our community.”

She said, however, that a better day would come with the approval of the first COVID-19 vaccine in the United States.

According to MDH Infectious Diseases Director Kris Ehresmann, 46,800 units of vaccine will be vaccinated throughout the state this week. They are sent to a larger community health system that MDH calls a “hub.” From there, MDH uses the “spoke and hub” model. In this model, these large “hub” sites send the vaccine to smaller hospitals and clinics called “spokes,” where the provider administers the vaccine.

In Minnesota, caregivers and healthcare workers are expected to be the first to be vaccinated next week, with key workers and the elderly in the second group.

The first cargo arrived this morning and was sent to the Minneapolis Veterans Medical Center, Sanford Bemidji Medical Center, Olmsted Medical Center, and Cass Lake Indian Health Service.

Ehresmann has stated that the Department of Veterans Affairs, Indian Health Services, Department of Defense, Prison Commission, and State Department are five channels for vaccination directly from the federal government and are therefore separate from the Minnesota assignment.

“Because of vaccination, they are in a completely different world,” she said. “That is, when we talk about the initiation of vaccination, we talk about health care providers in Minnesota that are not part of these five federal systems. Therefore, our training is for them and the vaccination plan is For them. These other entities are separate from us. They order vaccines separately. ”

Eresman also said it would take months before vaccination could be available in the average Minnesota, but said these first vaccinations were the first step in the right direction.

However, she emphasized that mitigation measures need to be implemented even if more people are vaccinated.

“It’s important to remember that we need to keep on masking, socially distanced, and continue with these mitigations, even when celebrating the arrival of the vaccine,” she says. I did.

Eresman added that Minnesota is focusing on “safety, not speed” this week to train workers in the distribution of vaccines. Vaccination will start next week.

When asked to think about how the state’s “pause” had an impact on slowing the spread of the virus, Eresman said many of the spaces closed after November 20 were due to delays. The number of those who stated that cases were still reported in connection with them was reduced, but the duration of the report.

“What we have learned, and what we continue to see, is that the setting where people gather in unmasked or impossible groups is where we see the transmission. “Ehresmann said. “All that information will continue to inform the governor’s decision.”

According to data shared by the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), COVID-19 deaths across the state fell sharply on Monday.

In the last 24 hours, 18 more virus deaths have been reported from the 85 recorded on Sunday. It’s unclear if the dramatic decline was due to weekend reports. The death toll reported on Monday totaled 4,462 in Minnesota since the outbreak of the pandemic.

According to MDH, a total of 3,026 coronaviruses have been added to the state over the past day, based on the results of 45,341 tests (41,937 PCR, 3,404 antigens) processed in private and state laboratories. Health officials consider a positive PCR test to be a definitive case of COVID-19, and a positive antigen test is labeled as a possible case.

The new positivity has brought the total number of Minnesota virus cases to 381,841 since the pandemic arrived. Of these cases, 10,499 are based on antigen testing.

Currently, 1,283 beds in hospitals throughout the state are being used to treat COVID patients, a slow but steadily declining number. Of those beds, 3,404 are in the ICU. Non-ICU bed availability across Twin Cities is improving, opening 4.7% on Monday. More ICU beds are available, with 55 open (8.0 percent) across the Twin Cities Metro.

The total number of hospitalizations since the outbreak of the pandemic has now reached 19,638, of which 4,255 are in need of ICU care.

In Minnesota, young adults have the highest number of COVID cases, with 39,478 cases aged 20-24 years and 3 deaths, and 34,414 cases aged 25-29 years and 5 deaths. Thirty-34 people died in 31,778 cases and nine people died.

The largest group of deaths is between the ages of 85 and 89, with 5,019 cases and 832 deaths.

Hennepin County has the highest COVID activity in the state, with 79,756 and 1,246 deaths, Ramsey County with 34,016 and 592 deaths, Dakota County with 27,388 and 236 deaths, and Anoka County with 26,802 and 263 deaths. Died.

Cook County, northeastern Minnesota, reports the lowest COVID activity in 97 cases and 0 deaths.