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Minnesota health officials reported another 715 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state on Sunday, as the state’s death toll passed 1,500 since the pandemic started. The percentage of positive COVID-19 tests has increased in the past couple days as the pace of new cases has accelerated.

Sunday’s update from the Minnesota Department of Health reported three more COVID-19 deaths in the state; the overall death toll now stands at 1,502.

The overall number of confirmed cases is now 42,281.

The 715 cases reported Sunday are from 12,957 tests — a positive rate of about 5.5 percent. That rate was 5 percent in Saturday’s update, and 3 percent in Friday’s.

It’s a metric that health officials watch closely to see how widespread the disease is. The 5.5 percent figure is an increase from rates between 2.5 and 4 percent in mid June, when cases were declining. But it’s far below the state’s peak of more than 16 percent in May.

Meanwhile, Sunday’s update noted a second straight day of increasing hospitalizations. The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Minnesota increased to 251 in Sunday’s update, up from 241 on Saturday and 227 in Friday’s report — though still far below numbers exceeding 600 seen in late May.

The number of those patients being treated in ICUs increased to 123, up from 121 in Saturday’s report.

Two of the deaths reported Sunday were people living in private residences; one was a resident of a long-term care facility.

Cases have been trending upward in Minnesota for several weeks, in all parts of the state — but especially in the Twin Cities suburbs. Minnesota now has nearly 1,500 more active COVID-19 cases than it did in mid-June, according to data released Friday.

Last week, for the first time, the suburban counties of Dakota, Washington, Anoka, Scott and Carver had about as many new cases per capita as Hennepin and Ramsey counties.

In mid-June, the five suburban counties were averaging about 70 new cases per day. Over the past week, they averaged 132 new cases per day, a nearly 90 percent increase.

Hennepin and Ramsey counties have also seen an increase in cases, to an average over the past week of 193 new cases in a larger population. But that’s a smaller increase of around 60 percent from the central counties’ rate in mid-June.

Here are the latest coronavirus statistics: 

• 42,281 cases confirmed (715 new) via 755,052 tests
• 1,502 deaths (3 new); deaths were in Carver, Hennepin and Ramsey counties
• 4,399 cases requiring hospitalization
• 251 people remain hospitalized; 123 in intensive care
• 36,582 patients no longer needing isolation

Local cases:

Freeborn County Public Health reported one new lab confirmed case of COVID-19 Sunday, bringing the cumulative count to 313.

The new case is a person between 10 and 20.

The department said there are two more people out of isolation and recovering from their illness, bringing the total out of isolation in the county to 292 people. There are 21 active cases in Freeborn County.

Four people are currently hospitalized from the county out of the total 23 who have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19.

Faribault County reported one new case, increasing its total to 62; Mower County had one new case and has now had 983; Steele County had two and has had 247; and Waseca County had one new case, increasing its total to 78.

 

Confirmed COVID-19 cases

County	Cases	Deaths
Aitkin	16	0
Anoka	2,422	111
Becker	66	0
Beltrami	53	0
Benton	239	3
Big Stone	17	0
Blue Earth	575	2
Brown	46	2
Carlton	94	0
Carver	494	2
Cass	19	2
Chippewa	81	1
Chisago	110	1
Clay	613	38
Clearwater	13	0
Cook	1	0
Cottonwood	141	0
Crow Wing	113	12
Dakota	2,713	96
Dodge	97	0
Douglas	73	0
Faribault	62	0
Fillmore	36	0
Freeborn	313	0
Goodhue	142	8
Grant	32	0
Hennepin	13,568	791
Houston	32	0
Hubbard	10	0
Isanti	83	0
Itasca	71	12
Jackson	57	0
Kanabec	17	1
Kandiyohi	593	1
Kittson	2	0
Koochiching	21	1
Lac qui Parle	5	0
Lake	9	0
Lake of the Woods	0	0
Le Sueur	132	1
Lincoln	19	0
Lyon	344	2
McLeod	103	0
Mahnomen	13	1
Marshall	16	0
Martin	175	5
Meeker	64	1
Mille Lacs	40	2
Morrison	66	1
Mower	983	2
Murray	82	0
Nicollet	206	12
Nobles	1,688	6
Norman	21	0
Olmsted	1,276	20
Otter Tail	114	1
Pennington	54	0
Pine	113	0
Pipestone	74	4
Polk	90	3
Pope	13	0
Ramsey	5,256	233
Red Lake	4	0
Redwood	25	0
Renville	37	2
Rice	884	8
Rock	34	0
Roseau	28	0
St. Louis	235	16
Scott	881	4
Sherburne	369	5
Sibley	58	2
Stearns	2,523	19
Steele	247	1
Stevens	11	0
Swift	33	1
Todd	403	2
Traverse	6	0
Wabasha	39	0
Wadena	17	0
Waseca	78	0
Washington	1,283	41
Watonwan	271	0
Wilkin	22	3
Winona	144	15
Wright	539	5
Yellow Medicine	31	0
Unknown/missing	88	0