Minnesota Now At 57 COVID-19 Related Deaths
ST. PAUL -- The state is reporting seven more deaths due to complications from COVID-19. A total of 57 people in Minnesota have now died from the coronavirus.
Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm says of the seven new deaths two were in their 60s, three were in their 80s, and two were in their 90s. Five of the seven were residents of a long term care facility. A total of 36 of the 57 deaths are in long term care facilities.
The modeling that Minnesota officials are using is estimating we could have 22,000 deaths. They say the more popular modeling from Washington State forecasting 400-500 deaths is overly optimistic.
Spokeswoman Kris Ehresman says, because they are prioritizing their testing at congregate living facilities, that may be skewing the data. Eighty-two congregate-care facilities have had at least one case or exposure so far.
The number of people who have tested positive is at 1,336, with 732 of those no longer needing to be in isolation. MDH says you can multiply the number of confirmed cases by 100 and that is likely the number of actual people who have had COVID-19 so far.
The Minnesota Department of Health says so far there have been nearly 34,000 tests completed.
317 people have had to be hospitalized with 143 of them still in the hospital today, and 64 of those in ICU. The ICU cases have remained stable over the past four days.