Severe COVID-19 at lowest levels in months in Minnesota hospitals

The number of COVID-19 patients requiring intensive care in Minnesota hospitals dropped to 178 Monday, the lowest count since Sept. 9 and another sign the latest pandemic wave has peaked.

Minnesota on Tuesday reported 10,409 coronavirus infections and 48 COVID-19 deaths, reflecting cases that were identified over the weekend. The state also saw declines in all measures of pandemic severity. The positivity rate of COVID-19 testing dropped to 14.9% in the week ending Jan. 30 — the first time it has been below 15% this year.

Total COVID-19 hospitalizations in Minnesota dropped to 1,164 on Monday as well. The decline has eased pressure on Minnesota hospitals, which reported 64 of 1,013 adult ICU beds were open statewide.

At its worst, the delta wave in mid-December left Minnesota with nine open ICU beds. Leaders of Twin Cities' hospitals published a full-page newspaper ad imploring people to reduce the spread of the virus because they no longer could guarantee a bed to new patients.

Measures of public compliance suggest the public listened. The share of people wearing masks most or all the time in public plummeted to a pandemic low of 19% in July after Gov. Tim Walz lifted a statewide mandate. Those levels increased to 48% on Dec. 1 and 63% on Jan. 9, according to survey data published by Carnegie Mellon University's COVIDcast.

Minnesotans were almost back to usual activity levels in mid-November, according to monitoring of anonymous mobile phone data. But mobility levels dropped to 19% below normal on Jan. 16, the lowest since last March, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Washington state.

Mask-wearing declined slightly and mobility levels have increased in recent weeks amid signs the latest wave has peaked.

The faster-spreading omicron variant replaced delta as the dominant strain in late December and produced record infections as well as more hospitalizations despite Minnesota's vaccination progress. Even Minnesota hospitals struggled to control the spread, reporting more than 60 COVID-19 cases per day in mid-January of patients whose infections presumably occurred after admission, according to federal data.

"At some point, the amount of disease transmission that occurs is bound to be more than can be reasonably fought off by any vaccine," said Stephanie Meyer, an epidemiology supervisor for the Minnesota Department of Health's COVID-19 section.

Omicron's rapid spread didn't translate into more ICU cases, with the number steadily declining from a peak of 371 on Dec. 14 at the end of the delta wave.

While the variant didn't cause as much severe illness as previous versions, Meyer said vaccinations also reduced severe outcomes. More than 4.1 million Minnesotans have received at least first doses and more than 2 million have received the initial vaccine series plus boosters, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Unvaccinated people make up 23% of Minnesota's adult population, according to state data, but 51% of the state's COVID-19 deaths and 55% of the hospitalizations in the first week of January.

Among 52 COVID-19 patients receiving intensive care in Allina Health hospitals in Minnesota on Monday, 38 were unvaccinated while eight had received initial shots and six also had received boosters.

COVID-19 deaths remain steady, increasing Minnesota's toll in the pandemic to 11,682. Death rates have increased in younger age groups that have lower vaccination rates. Tuesday's report included three COVID-19 deaths of people in their 30s from Hennepin and Ramsey counties.

Only 189 of Minnesota's COVID-19 deaths since March 2020 have been people 39 or younger, but records indicate more than half occurred in the last five months.