The number of Minnesotans receiving intensive hospital care for COVID-19 jumped by nine Friday, the largest single-day increase in more than a month.
The increase comes as government leaders across the country are taking steps to prevent new transmissions and curb a national spike in new lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases, which are now surpassing 50,000 a day in the U.S. for the first time since the outbreak began.
This week Texas Gov. Greg Abbott mandated the wearing of masks in most counties in his state, which is adding more cases per day than most other states. Meanwhile, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio indefinitely delayed the reopening of indoor dining in restaurants and bars in his city, which was once a COVID-19 hot spot.
Minnesota added 423 new lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 to its statewide tally on Friday, and eight additional deaths caused by the viral respiratory condition, according to the Minnesota Department of Health.
The state has reported 37,624 confirmed cases of the illness since March 5, including roughly 32,000 in people who have since been released from self-isolation. Minnesota has seen a slowly increasing average number of new daily diagnoses since mid-June, as more young people contract the virus and the median age of infection drops.
Minnesota’s average daily increase in cases, calculated by averaging out the increases over the prior seven days, surpassed 400 in the waning days of June. It had not been above 400 since the first few days of that month.
Looking at hospitization trends, the nine additional people reported Friday to be in intensive care represented the largest single-day increase in ICU care since May 29. All told, 132 are receiving ICU care for COVID-19 in Minnesota, health department data showed.
Meanwhile, the number of people in regular hospital beds for COVID care dropped by 13. But Thursday, health officials reported an increase of 16 regular-bed hospitalizations, a jump not seen since May 28.
The percentage of patients testing positive for the virus — about 3.7% — has been gradually rising along with the overall increase in testing in Minnesota. An increasing positivity rate is considered a sign that actual transmission is growing, even as the number of total tests increases.
The data released Friday included the results of 13,783 new tests, marking the fourth consecutive day of more than 10,000 tests.
The rate of death from COVID-19 has remained largely flat in Minnesota.
On Friday, the eight deaths reported by the Minnesota Health Department were enough to cause the seven-day average to rise slightly, from seven per day to eight. The average daily death toll had remained at seven deaths for the past week, after falling from a high of 25 on June 2.
Seven of the eight people whose deaths were recorded Friday lived in long-term care facilities, and all were at least 60 years old.
