Roughly 3 of every 4 deaths resulting from coronavirus in Minnesota have occurred in long term care facilities like nursing homes.
Last week, 70% COVID-19 related deaths in the state had occured in nursing homes. Although the overall number of deaths increased significantly over the weekend, so did the portion of these deaths that occured in nursing homes according to KSTP-TV’s Chief Political Reporter. Now, 75% of the Minnesota’s overall deaths and 88% of the deaths from this weekend are reported to have occured in long term care facilities.
It was around 75% going into the weekend, but 88% of the weekend deaths were in LTC. https://t.co/CrSUH9SUGF
— Tom Hauser (@thauserkstp) April 26, 2020
Minnesota has confirmed 3,500 cases of the virus since the pandemic began in March— 7% of which have died. This means that only around 60 of the state’s deaths were not people already receiving long term care at a nursing home or similar facility.
.061% of Minnesota’s overall population have tested positive for the virus.
John Ioannidis, a professor of medicine at Stanford University suggests that even this small estimate for how many people have been infected is likely too high. “The data collected so far on how many people are infected and how the epidemic is evolving are utterly unreliable,” he said in a recent article for Stat.
“Patients who have been tested for SARS-CoV-2 are disproportionately those with severe symptoms and bad outcomes. As most health systems have limited testing capacity, selection bias may even worsen in the near future,” he notes.
Ioannidis was also one of 17 authors listed on a new study released by Stanford that predict that actual rates of COVID-19 infection are 50-80 times higher than what has been reported. If this study is accurate, the mortality rate of coronavirus would be well under 1%.
Kyle Hooten
Kyle Hooten is Managing Editor of Alpha News. His coverage of Minneapolis has been featured on television shows like Tucker Carlson Tonight and in print media outlets like the Wall Street Journal.
