Thread by @dhmontgomery

Today is another good news day for MN’s #COVID19 stats. Most strikingly, more than 22,000 newly reported vaccinations, against fewer than *1,000* last Wednesday.

Minnesota’s weekly average vaccination pace is up to nearly 20,000 per day, nearly double where it was 6 days ago.

Now, 20,000 doses per day is not nearly enough. At this rate it’d take a full calendary year, until January 2022, to vaccinate 80% of MN adults. BUT Minnesota is finally moving in the right direction on this metric.

Meanwhile, all the metrics tracking the pandemic’s progress in Minnesota are also headed in the right direction. For example, there were 18 newly reported #COVID19 deaths today, vs. 34 last Wednesday and 50 the week before that. Average is down to 21 deaths/day and falling.

Newly reported #COVID19 cases also dropped a little bit. This number has looked like it might be flattening out — and that still might be true — but a drop is good. Now down to just over 1,100 cases per day on average.

The average positivity rate is down to 3.7%. Over the past week, tests have been growing twice as quickly as cases.

Minnesota now has 9,453 active, confirmed #COVID19 cases, finally falling below the 10,000 mark for the first time since Oct. 15. (This actually happened yesterday.)

Non-ICU #COVID19 hospitalizations continue to decline. (ICU admissions still look like they’ve bottomed out for now.)

Now, the fact that metrics *have been* improving is no guarantee that they will *continue* to do so. Another wave is possible, though less likely as more and more of the population acquires resistance through infection or vaccination.

At the peak of Minnesota’s #COVID19 outbreak (so far), more than 35% of the state’s deaths were being caused by respiratory illness, up from 5-10% in normal years.

That’s now receded back down to about 15%, though that’s still elevated.