Statewide COVID rates decline for fifth straight week

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) reported Tuesday that a total of 2,592,078 Michiganders have tested positive for COVID-19 and 36,744 have died from the virus — an additional 10,681 cases and 69 deaths in the last week.

While those numbers represent a fifth straight week of declines, state health officials reported the new COVID-19 numbers on Tuesday instead of Wednesday “to accommodate an anticipated change in CDC data cadence.” Therefore, the statistics combine recorded cases and deaths in the last six days (as opposed to the normal seven), with an average of 1,780 new confirmed cases per day. 

The virus has been detected in all of Michigan’s 83 counties. The state’s COVID-19 fatality rate is currently at 1.5%

As of Tuesday, the state reported a total of 777 COVID-19 hospitalizations across Michigan hospitals, with 93 adults 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.

Johns Hopkins University reports that there are about 540 million confirmed cases worldwide and 6.3 million deaths. The United States makes up a significant portion of those, as 86.4 million confirmed cases and 1,014,174 deaths have been recorded nationally.

Michigan currently has an overall vaccination rate (one or more doses) of 67.4%, putting it in the bottom third of state vaccination rates. About 60.6% of the state’s population has been fully vaccinated.

About 78% of the entire United States population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.