Troublesome variants of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus continue to drive pandemic activity in Minnesota, which has reported 6,932 total COVID-19 deaths and 537,828 diagnosed infections.
The totals include 10 deaths and 2,659 infections reported Friday by the Minnesota Department of Health — with the one-day case total being the highest since Jan. 4. The positivity rate of diagnostic testing increased to 6.6% — up from a low of 3.2% on March 2 — while the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Minnesota increased to 595.
State health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said the rising numbers underscore the need for continued vaccination as well as measures such as public mask-wearing and social distancing to slow viral transmission.
"We really do consider this a race against time and against the variants," she said.
Health officials are encouraged, though, that the uptick in pandemic activity hasn't yet caused a substantial increase in COVID-19 deaths. Vaccination of senior citizens and others at greatest risk of severe COVID-19 illness appears to be playing a protective role.
The state on Friday reported that 1,940,081 people in Minnesota had received COVID-19 vaccine and that 1,285,925 of them had completed the one- or two-dose series. That means that 44% of Minnesota's eligible population of people 16 or older, and more than 83% of senior citizens, have received vaccine.
Minnesota ranks 14th in the U.S. for its per capita rate of COVID-19 vaccinations but among the best in the nation for the percent of its available doses that have been administered.
The B.1.1.7 variant is fueling as much as half of new infections in Minnesota and has been identified in outbreaks in youth sports events, sports clubs, restaurants and long-term care and correctional facilities, said Dr. Ruth Lynfield, state epidemiologist. Genomic sequencing of about 7% of positive test results has identified 1,573 infections involving that variant.
Roughly 4% of the known B.1.1.7 infections resulted in hospitalizations and five resulted in deaths.
Genomic sequencing also detected 337 infections involving two more-infectious variants first identified in California. Only 18% of those infections involved people who had traveled, meaning transmission has been occurring in Minnesota, Lynfield said.
The state also has found 5 cases of the P.1 variant first identified in Brazil and 26 cases of the B1351 variant first identified in South Africa. At least two-thirds of these cases have involved international travel, but some people haven't been interviewed to determine the source of their infections.
"They are spreading," Lynfield said of the variants, "and we need to continue to be careful while more Minnesotans get vaccinated."
