Across the 10-county region of the Northland, 111 more people have tested positive for COVID-19 and five more people have died from the illness and its complications as of Wednesday.
Two of those who died lived in St. Louis County. Both were in their 90s, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. The most recent deaths bring the county's total number of lives lost to 181. Over a quarter of those people died in just the month of December. No other month has seen as many deaths in St. Louis County.
Carlton, Lake and Itasca counties each recorded one new death. They were all in their 80s or 90s. The number of people who have died to COVID-19 and its complications is now 34 in Carlton County, 15 in Lake County and 33 in Itasca County.
About half of the new cases in the Northland are St. Louis County residents. The county logged 53 more people with COVID-19, putting its seven-day average of new cases at 82.4 new cases a day.
New cases and seven-day averages in other counties:
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- Aitkin — 16; 7.
- Carlton — 10; 16.6.
- Cook — 1; 0.4.
- Itasca — 5; 18.4.
- Koochiching — 1; 4.6.
- Lake — 2; 3.1.
- Ashland — 4; 8.3.
- Bayfield — 4; 6.1.
- Douglas — 15; 30.1.
Minnesota reported a total of 1,513 new cases and 75 deaths on Wednesday. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported 2,579 more cases and 69 new deaths.
The number of intensive care beds available in Northeastern Minnesota dropped by about 10% to seven beds between Monday and Tuesday, according to state data that's updated once every weekday with figures from the previous day.
Available non-ICU beds have remained roughly the same in the region, at 13%. As of Tuesday, nearly 1,100 people were hospitalized in the region with COVID-19. Nearly 240 of them were an an ICU unit.
