COVID in Minnesota: State has now had more than 10,000 intensive care hospitalizations since pandemic began – WCCO

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO ​​/ AP) – As the FDA has announced its approval of COVID-19 booster doses for children as young as 12, Minnesota reported 6,780 new cases and 48 additional deaths on Wednesday.

The latest figures the Minnesota Department of Health puts the total number of cases at 1,028,986, which includes 14,701 re-infections. Since the start of the pandemic, 10,564 Minnesotans have died from the virus.

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“The new cases reported today include some cases that have been delayed in reporting to us due to an error in reporting from an external laboratory,” the health department reported, also noting that the cases in the data from Mondays were up until last Thursday, and did not cover all cases during the long holiday weekend.

The state’s moving average positivity rate is showing signs of increasing again, to 8.9% after dropping to 8.2% last week; and the daily new cases per 100,000 population are 63.4.

Since the start of the pandemic, there have now been more than 10,000 intensive care unit hospitalizations for COVID-19, according to the latest figures.

As of Monday, there were only about 32 adult intensive care unit beds available statewide, with 283 intensive care beds occupied by COVID-19 patients, as well as 1,030 non-ICU beds. Only 13 staffed pediatric intensive care beds are available.

A total of 8,711,845 doses of vaccine have been administered in the state, including 1.71 million boosters. Of the state’s population aged 5 and over, 72% have received at least one injection.

Gov. Tim Walz said the best ways to help schools stay open were for people to get vaccinated and boosted, tested and wear masks in public places.

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“We are not helpless in this. ” he said. “We have the tools to slow the spread of this. “

Walz is back to work after he, his wife and 15-year-old son tested positive and developed mild to moderate symptoms in late December. But because they were in quarantine, he said, their college-aged daughter couldn’t spend Christmas with them and instead stayed with relatives. He said they have all tested negative since then.

The governor said in an interview with WCCO Radio that Minnesota’s efforts to speed up testing will be complicated by President Joe Biden’s announcement just before Christmas that the federal government will provide 500 million free home rapid test kits. He said it was a good move, but it affected Minnesota’s existing supply chains. He said Minnesota was still in better shape than other states, but acknowledged that testing availability was limited, and thanked people for being patient.

“Don’t give up on it.” Walz told WCCO. “Testing is the real key, along with boosters, to help stop the spread. “

CBS News reports that millions of Americans as young as 12 may soon be able to receive a COVID-19 vaccine booster, after the Food and Drug Administration announced it had authorized third doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for this age group.

The FDA also said it would allow children as young as 5 years old with weakened immune systems to receive an additional injection. And the agency shortened the time between a person’s second dose of Pfizer vaccine and eligibility for a booster to five months instead of six months for all age groups.

(© Copyright 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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