Minnesota Reports Record COVID-19 Cases, ICU Patients Wednesday

(FOX 9) – For the second day in a row, Minnesota hit a new high for the number of COVID-19 cases reported in a single day with 3,844 cases Wednesday, according to the latest data from the state health department.

The 3,844 new COVID-19 cases topped the previous record of 3,483 cases set on Tuesday. Minnesota has now reported more than 3,000 COVID-19 cases per day for four of the last seven days.

The Minnesota Department of Health reported the 3,844 positive cases were out of 32,775 completed tests—a positivity rate of 11.7%.

On Monday, Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm reported the 7-day rolling average positivity rate—the key metric—was 8.1%, although that is a lagging indicator and does not include the week of record-high case counts. Malcolm is expected to update that positivity rate at the next MDH briefing on Wednesday.

Minnesota has now seen 160,923 cases of COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic. Of those cases, 24,466 are currently active and require the infected person to be isolated.

MDH also reported 31 more deaths attributed to COVID-19 on Wednesday. The deaths ranged in age from 35-99 years old. Seven of the 31 deaths were in the Twin Cities metro area while the rest were in Greater Minnesota. Nineteen of the people who died were residents of long-term care or assisted living facilities and one was in a group home.

A total of 2,530 people in Minnesota have now died from COVID-19.

Hospitalizations continued to increase Wednesday and remain at record high levels. There are currently 908 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Minnesota, up from 852 the day before. The number of COVID-19 patients in the ICU also hit a new high with 203.