Some #COVID19 milestones today.

- More than 50% of Minnesota residents have now taken at least 1 COVID test this year
- December is officially the deadliest month to date, surpassing November’s 1,136 COVID deaths with 12 more days to go.

But today was the 2nd day in a row of a declining death rate — 57 new #COVID19 deaths today is a lot, but lower than last Saturday’s 67. The 7-day average is down to 60 deaths/day, from a peak of 67/day just three days ago.

Watching to see if this continues.

#COVID19 deaths are trending down the past two days both in and out of long-term care settings:

But #COVID19 cases continue their decline; they’ve been falling for nearly 3 weeks now.

2,772 newly reported cases today vs. more than 4,400 last Saturday. The 7-day average is down to 2,766 cases/day.

And this isn’t a function of low testing, either. The positivity rate fell again today, week-over-week, and is now down to a 7-day average of 7.2%. MN’s on track to get back to 5% positivity on Christmas:

#COVID19 testing volume has been declining steadily since Thanksgiving. I’m wondering if we’ll see another surge again next week in advance of Christmas.

#COVID19 hospitalization rates continue to fall steadily:

#COVID19 cases are still on track to get back to pre-spike levels before Christmas: