More Than 200 Minnesota ICU Beds in Use Due to COVID-19

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units across Minnesota has climbed to more than 200 for the first time this year, fueling concerns from health officials about shrinking capacity at hospitals statewide.

Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm told reporters on Wednesday that 718 patients are hospitalized due to COVID-19 — the highest since this spring — including 208 in intensive care.

Malcolm said Minnesota hospitals were “very full” of patients with other critical conditions even before virus cases began increasing.

“It is getting harder for some hospitals to find open, staffed beds at the right level of care for critically ill patients, whether due to heart attack, stroke or COVID-19,” she said. “This is an issue statewide impacting both small rural facilities and larger metro systems.”

Malcolm said the health department is closely monitoring capacity statewide and remains in contact with health care facilities. The commissioner urged Minnesotans again to get vaccinated in an effort to limit transmission and to prevent further straining the state’s health systems.

As of Monday, more than 3.3 million Minnesotans 12 and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Case growth driven by the highly contagious delta variant caused statewide test positivity to surpass 7% for the first time since April. More than 2,300 daily cases were reported on average over the past week for a weekly total of more than 16,300 cases, which was 3,000 more cases than last week.