351 new COVID-19 cases, 0 deaths reported in St. Cloud area through Thursday

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Here's a look at COVID-19 trends and updates in the tri-county area as reported this week by the Minnesota Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Zero deaths were reported in Stearns, Benton and Sherburne Counties from July 1 through Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID Data Tracker. In that same period, Stearns County had 220 reported COVID-19 cases, Benton County had 49 cases and Sherburne County had 82 cases, according to the CDC.

MDH now updates state COVID information weekly on Thursdays, with data as of the prior Tuesday. Previously, MDH posted state COVID data five days a week and classified cases and deaths by age and county.

On its new COVID dashboard, Minnesotans can look at trends related to state hospitalization rates and hospital capacity, COVID exposure in child care, school, long-term care, correctional facilities and high risk congregate living settings, COVID case rates by age, sex, race and ethnicity, vaccine rates by county and age, vaccine breakthrough data, COVID mortality rates over time, by age, county, sex, race and ethnicity, rates of COVID-19 in wastewater and rates of emergency room visits for people with COVID or influenza-like symptoms.

More:MDH releases new COVID-19 trend data

According to data reported by CDC as of Thursday, Stearns County has had 136.58 cases per 100,000 people in the last seven days. In that same period, Benton County has had 119.84 cases per 100,000 people and Sherburne County has had 84.33 cases per 100,000 people.

The CDC also reports COVID-19 Community Levels by county as high, medium or low. The levels are determined using admissions of patients with confirmed COVID-19 and inpatient beds metrics, based on the current level of cases per 100,000 people in the last seven days, according to the CDC.

Stearns, Benton and Sherburne Counties are classified as having "low" COVID-19 community levels as of Thursday.

As of Wednesday, 23.5% of residents 5 and older in Stearns County are up-to-date on their vaccine series, meaning they have received all doses of the COVID-19 vaccine they are eligible to receive. 61.4% of residents 5 and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

In Benton County 21.4% of residents 5 and older are up-to-date on their vaccine series. 57.8% of residents have gotten at least one vaccine dose.

In Sherburne County 21% of residents 5 and older are up-to-date on their vaccine series. 58.9% have gotten at least one vaccine dose.

Since the pandemic began, there have been more than 554 million cases of COVID-19 and more than 6.3 million deaths across the world as of Saturday, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The U.S. has reported more than 88 million cases and more than 1 million deaths.

More than 11.7 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered globally.

Find a vaccine clinic near you by visiting https://mn.gov/covid19/vaccine/find-vaccine/index.jsp.

This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: St. Cloud-area sees 351 new COVID cases, no deaths in past week