Here are the latest updates from May 3, 2020:
6,663 confirmed cases; 419 deaths
Twenty-four more Minnesotans have died of COVID-19, the Minnesota Department of Health said Sunday, for a total of 419.
Among the people who died were one person over the age of one hundred, eight people in their nineties, five people in their eighties, four people in their seventies, three people in their sixties, two people in their fifties and one person in their forties. They were residents of Hennepin, Ramsey and Anoka counties. Twenty-one of the 24 people whose deaths were announced Sunday lived in long-term care facilities.
The current death toll only includes Minnesotans with lab-confirmed positive COVID-19 tests.
MDH also said Sunday there have been 6,663 total confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Minnesota, up 435 from Saturday’s count. Because Minnesota hasn’t had the capacity to test everybody with symptoms, the number of people with the virus is assumed to be significantly higher.
The number of known cases is expected to increase more quickly as Minnesota begins to test more people under an initiative announced last week to test as many as 20,000 Minnesotans per day. Late last month, state officials said anyone with COVID-19-like symptoms should be able to get tested. Previously, tests had been limited to specific populations whose results mattered most for public health.
Since the start of the outbreak, 1,199 Minnesotans have been hospitalized due to COVID-19 and 373 are currently in the hospital, 155 in intensive care. Of the 6,663 confirmed positive cases in Minnesota, 3,015 no longer need to be isolated, which means they are considered to have recovered or have died.
A total of 82,632 people have been tested for COVID-19 in Minnesota.
More information on cases can be found here.
Today on MinnPost
- Asking yourself how long it’s been since this all started? Us too.
- As always, a look at the numbers on the MinnPost COVID-19 dashboard.
Around the web
- Texas is lifting some COVID-19 restrictions. Here’s what it was like when a mall reopened, from the Texas Tribune.
- The New York Times on the many challenges when it comes to developing a vaccine.
MDH’s coronavirus website: https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/index.html
Hotline, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.: 651-201-3920
How any Minnesotans who have been hospitalized with Covid-19 have died from it, in the hospital?
The state’s, and MinnPost’s, refusal to separate out that figure leaves us with no idea of how fatal the disease is, for those who actively seek medical attention in our hospitals.
“Removed from isolation,” a figure that includes those who died, does not convey a really meaningful measure.
We are left to understand that if one is not confined in a prison or jail, or in a long-term-care facility, one will survive this virus? (i.e, prisoners and the elderly in long term care do not die in hospitals, right?)
Work to do here, folks!
People in nursing homes are particularly vulnerable – and unfortunately reimbursement of nursing homes has been inadequate for so long, they have too little money to fix the problem. Case of pay me now or pay me later. Same with prisons. Much too crowded because of the pressure to spend as little as possible.
The nature of the illness is that those who are not really sick recover at home. Those who get admitted have much worse prognoses – but there is no evidence than anyone other that heathcare providers are getting infected there, often because we were so woefully prepared for this, contrary to the false claims of Trump and son-in-law.