Age Structure Charts, April 29

I am now pretty convinced there is a case wave in Minnesota right now, it just isn’t showing up because it is all mild and no one is getting official tests.  In any event, the weekly report and the age structure charts continue to show very slight changes.  I also want to note that hospital officials are acknowledging that half or more of hospital admissions that are listed as CV-19 ones, are not admissions for treatment of CV-19.  As usual, what rise in events that there is, is concentrated in older age groups.

Dave’s notes:

1. Overall, Covid cases and non-ICU admissions continue to rise slowly, while ICU admissions and deaths continue to generally decrease.
2. As always there are 2 charts for each metric. The second chart for each metric was moved one week later this week, starting on 2/17/2022 (2/12/2022 for the Cases chart), in order to improve legibility of the more recent data.
3. Fig. 1 and 2: Covid Cases Per Week. The reported Covid cases this week are slightly higher again this week for all age groups, continuing a trend we have seen for 4 weeks now. Total reported cases for the week were 7,316 total for all age groups, a moderate increase from the 5,441 revised cases reported last week.
4. Fig. 5 and 6: ICU Covid Admissions Per Week. Reported total ICU admissions for the week were 28, an increase of 7 from the total of 21 admissions reported last week, but within the general range of admissions reported for the past 5 weeks. The 50-59 age group increased from 0 to 6 for the week, and the 30-39 age group increased from 0 to 3.
5. Fig. 7 and 8: Non-ICU Covid Admissions Per Week. Reported Non-ICU Covid admissions were higher this week in all age groups except 30-39, with a total of 256 admissions reported, an increase of 87 admissions from last week’s total of 169. The 60-69, 70-79, and 80+ age groups were the main contributors to the increase, with the other age groups remaining low and within the range they have been in for the past 6 weeks.
6. Fig. 9 and 10: Covid Deaths Per Week. Total reported Covid deaths for the week were 21,down from 24 reported deaths last week.  The 50-59 age group increased from 1 to 6 deaths, all others were lower or zero.

Data Sources:

1.  The data for the charts on testing, hospital admissions, and deaths comes from the Minnesota Weekly Report (available here: https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/stats/index.html). The data in the Weekly Report is presented as cumulative totals for each data type each week. I am taking weekly differences and assembling the data into charts. This data is by date of report, meaning the charts are documenting new events reported this week, even though the underlying event occurred sometime in the past. The data is provided for 5 year age groups, and I am assembling into 10 year age groups to make the charts more readable.

2.  The data for the Covid cases per week come from a data file published along with the Minnesota Weekly Report, here: https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/stats/index.html#wagscd1 This data is published by date of specimen collection, rather than by date of report as the other data is. The data is provided as cases per week in 5 year age groups. I am compiling the data into 10 year age groups in order for the charts to be more readable. This data is updated by date of specimen collection, so it is possible that past week’s data will be updated.