MDH: 79 new COVID-19 deaths, 1,917 newly reported cases

Thursday, the Minnesota Department of Health reported 79 new deaths from COVID-19 and 1,917 newly reported positive COVID-19 tests.

Of the 1,917 newly reported cases, 334 of them are noted as probable cases, according to MDH. A total of 12,962 probable cases have been reported since antigen testing began in September.

So far, 5,050 people have died of the coronavirus in Minnesota. Of those deaths, 146 are listed as probable COVID-19 deaths. Of the total deaths reported as of Thursday, 3,273 were in long-term care facilities.

To date, 21,105 COVID-19 patients have been hospitalized in Minnesota and 4,500 patients have been in the ICU.

According to MDH, the new positive COVID-19 cases in Minnesota reported on Thursday moved the state’s total to 404,403 since pandemic record-keeping began.

A total of 381,269 patients have recovered or are recovering and no longer need isolation, according to MDH.

As of Thursday, more than 5.33 million COVID-19 tests have been completed in Minnesota.

KSTP’s complete COVID-19 coverage

See the full Minnesota COVID-19 situation update here.

According to MDH, in observance of the holiday, the situation update for COVID-19 will not be updated on Friday and updates will resume on Saturday with data from Thursday.

According to the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering, the virus has infected more than 78.8 million people worldwide and killed over 1.7 million people.

About 44.4 million people worldwide have recovered as of Thursday.

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 a loss of smell and/or taste and 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."