MDH will no longer report raw numbers of current hospitalizations & current ICU cases. Only new admissions.

This means we can no longer report positive news of ICU cases declining or if hospitalizations are way down. Removing this data point is worrisome as far as transparency.

For example, we can no longer report ICU cases are down 7 patients today and that ICU cases have been steady in the 130-range for the past month.

All we can report now. There were 4 new ICU admissions reported today and 20 new hospitalizations.

Statistics and data points are all about context. We lose that context now.

Statement from Minnesota Department of Health:

Final note. MDH's Situation Page is as good, if not better, than any other state in the US. The information on the daily page and weekly update are incredibly thorough and have been from the start.

It's our job as journalists to ask questions when certain transparency goes away.

First thing MDH addressed on call today was this change in data. I have tweeted about it separately from this thread.

Bottom line, they feel they can get a better idea of severity (will post length of stay) and admissions tell us if there's significant uptick in hospitalizations