Michigan sees a drop in new COVID cases over the last week, but deaths are up

Michigan is reporting 6,530 new COVID-19 cases, according to a weekly report the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services released Tuesday.

That’s a drop from the last report issued Jan. 17, when the state said there were 9,687 new cases for the week.

A total of 3,024,478 Michiganders have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to the department. In total, 41,445 people have died from the virus, with 260 deaths reported on Tuesday compared to 184 last week. 

However, as home testing has increased since 2021, experts note that some cases are not being recorded. 

The virus has been detected in all of Michigan’s 83 counties. The state’s COVID-19 fatality rate is at 1.4% as of Tuesday.

As of Tuesday, the state reported a total of 879 adults and 16 pediatric patients were hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases across Michigan hospitals. The state also reported that 92 confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients are in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

The first two cases of COVID-19 were reported in the state on March 10, 2020. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency that day.

The community risk level for Michigan is at “low” following its increase to “medium” in early January.

Only one county, Livingston, is at a “high” risk level, while 18 counties across the state are at “medium” risk level and the remaining 64 counties are at a “low” risk level. However, Livingston County has disputed the CDC’s categorization, saying that it had recently reported a backlog of cases.

Johns Hopkins University reports that there are 669.2 million confirmed cases worldwide and more than 6.7 million deaths. The United States makes up a significant portion of those, as 102 million confirmed cases and 1,624,036 deaths have been recorded nationally.

Michigan currently has an overall vaccination rate (one or more doses) of 69.3%, putting it in the lower half of state vaccination rates. About 62% of the state’s population has been fully vaccinated. Just 36.4% of the state has received a booster dose, while 16.4% have received a bivalent dose.

About 80% of the entire United States population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.