June 30 update on COVID-19 in MN: Pandemic numbers tumble; vaccinations crawl
3 things to know
Daily cases trending below 100; hospitalizations stay below 100
10 days of active case counts below 1,000
66.9 percent of residents 16 and older have at least one vaccine shot; 63.5 percent completely vaccinated
Updated: 12 p.m.
Wednesday’s COVID-19 data offers fresh evidence of a rapidly shrinking pandemic in Minnesota. New and active cases and hospital admissions remain at or near their April 2020 lows.
Equally encouraging: It’s been more than a month since Minnesota ended all statewide COVID-19 capacity limits on bars, restaurants and other public gathering spaces. Officials had been watching to see if the end of those restrictions generated more viral spread. It has not.
The vaccination pace remains the biggest downside in the data.
The current rate is barely moving the needle forward toward the goal of getting a shot into 70 percent of residents 16 and older. It will be mid-August before the state reaches that goal. Wide gaps remain between age groups and regions.
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Metrics hover near pandemic lows
Disease conditions continue to improve, enough so that the Minnesota House and Senate overnight effectively ended the COVID-19 peacetime emergency used by Gov. Tim Walz to manage the state’s pandemic response. Walz said he no longer needs the powers.
Known, active COVID-19 cases in Minnesota dropped to 758 in Wednesday’s data, staying below 1,000 for the 10th consecutive reporting day. It’s part of a stunning drop since May 1, when Minnesota had more than 15,000 active cases.
Receding caseloads mean fewer hospitalizations. The Health Department reported 97 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Minnesota, hovering at levels not seen since the Health Department started recording this data more than a year ago.
Twenty-three patients needed an intensive care unit bed. ICU admissions are at their lowest since March 2020.
Seven newly reported deaths on Wednesday pushed Minnesota’s pandemic toll to 7,594. Among those who have died, about 59 percent had been living in long-term care or assisted living facilities; most had underlying health problems.
The state has recorded 605,365 total confirmed or probable cases so far in the pandemic, including the 81 posted Wednesday. About 99 percent of Minnesotans known to be infected with COVID-19 have recovered to the point where they no longer need to isolate.
People in their 20s still make up the age bracket with the state’s largest number of confirmed cases — more than 112,000 since the pandemic began.
Although young people are less likely to feel the worst effects of the disease and end up hospitalized, experts worry they can spread it unknowingly to older relatives and members of other vulnerable populations.
Vaccination pace crawls
Nearly 3 million residents 16 and older now have at least one vaccine dose. About 2.8 million are completely vaccinated. That’s about 63.5 percent completely vaccinated and 66.9 percent with at least one shot, including 91 percent of people 65 and older.
Add in more than 106,000 12-to-15-year-olds with at least one dose and Minnesota has topped 3 million residents with one or more shots. About 52 percent of the state’s total population is now completely vaccinated.
The vaccination pace, however, continues to stumble forward.
Minnesota’s also seeing big regional gaps in vaccination rates, with most counties outside the Twin Cities region still below 70 percent of adults vaccinated.
COVID-19 in Minnesota
Data in these graphs are based on the Minnesota Department of Health's cumulative totals released at 11 a.m. daily. You can find more detailed statistics on COVID-19 at the Health Department website.