Minnesota’s COVID-19 testing reached a new daily high Wednesday, with 6,717 tests completed for a total of 128,752, according to the Minnesota Department of Health.
Testing hadn’t increased as much as officials hoped in recent weeks, since the state announced in late April a plan to test up to 20,000 Minnesotans daily through a joint effort with Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota. Daily tests topped 5,000 for the first time Saturday and again Monday.
Providers at testing sites across the state had said that patients weren’t coming in, possibly because they don’t know they could get tested, said Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm during a media call in early May. Due to a national shortage of test kits, testing in Minnesota was limited to health care workers, hospitalized patients and long-term care facility residents for March and much of April.
As of Wednesday afternoon, 13,435 Minnesotans had tested positive for COVID-19, and 663 patients had died. Nearly 8,500 patients no longer need to be isolated.
For more data related to the coronavirus pandemic in Minnesota and the United States, check out Minnesota Reformer’s daily COVID-19 tracker.
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