COVID-19 in Minnesota: 352 new cases, 3 more deaths in latest MDH report
A lab technician works during research on coronavirus, COVID-19, at Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceutical in Beerse, Belgium, Wednesday, June 17, 2020. Janssen Pharmaceutical hopes to begin clinical trials on a potential vaccine for COVID-19 in the middle of the summer.[AP/Virginia Mayo]
Tuesday, the Minnesota Department of Health reported there are 352 new cases that have tested positive for COVID-19, creating a total of 47,457 cases in the state.
MDH reports there are 1,548 total deaths, with three additional deaths reported Tuesday. Of the entire total, 1,189 have occurred in long-term care or assisted living facilities, MDH reported.
The department stated, as of Tuesday, 876,859 tests have been completed.
According to MDH, 4,723 total cases have required hospitalization. Of that total, 266 remained in the hospital Tuesday with 112 in intensive care.
MDH states 41,511 patients no longer need to be isolated. MDH is now reporting that the number of patients who no longer need isolation represents individuals with confirmed COVID-19 who no longer need to self-isolate. That number "does not include those who have died; the cumulative number was adjusted to reflect that change."
Meanwhile, MDH issued the following statement regarding recent case reports:
Due to the transition in our data management system over the weekend of July 18-19, the process of assigning COVID-19 cases to specific dates was impacted for those cases reported on July 20-21. The total number of cases added for the two days was 1,272 (922 reported on 7/20 plus 352 reported on 7/21, with two cases flagged for removal during data verification), for a daily average of 636. This figure best represents the actual case load for Minnesota over those two days.
The data management system transition is not expected to affect daily case number reports after July 21.
According to the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering, the virus has infected more than 14.7 million people worldwide and killed about 611,090.
More than 8.3 million people worldwide have recovered as of Tuesday.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, patients with confirmed COVID-19 have mild to severe respiratory problems, with symptoms of fever, cough and shortness of breath. Some patients report having muscle aches, headache, sore throat, and/or chills and shaking.
Note: According to MDH – "Because all data are preliminary, the change in number of cumulative positive cases and deaths from one day to the next may not equal the newly reported cases or deaths." On July 19, MDH transitioned data management systems for COVID-19 surveillance data. This updated system is better able to deal with the high volume of data MDH is collecting. During this transition MDH had limited capacity to complete investigations. In turn, numbers posted on July 20 for missing and unknown are higher than normal. This data will be updated as case investigations continue. Because all data is preliminary, the change in number of cumulative positive cases and deaths from one day to the next may not equal the newly reported cases or deaths.