Six counties in northwest Michigan and Oakland County were upgraded this week from “low” to “medium” community levels of COVID-19 as cases and hospitalizations are rising across the state, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Along with Oakland, the second-most populous county in the state, Manistee, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Kalkaska and Grand Traverse counties are now yellow, the CDC reported Thursday night. In these areas, the CDC suggests those at high risk for severe illness talk to their health care providers about the necessity of masking and other precautions.
Presque Isle, Alpena, Alcona and Montmorency in the northeastern Lower Peninsula remain yellow. So does Washtenaw County, which saw the most per-capita new cases in the seven days ending Wednesday, April 27. (The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services updates its COVID data once a week on Wednesdays.)
The rest of the state is green, meaning health systems are not overwhelmed and few are suffering from severe disease.
It is only at the highest level, orange, that the CDC, which relaxed its guidelines two months ago, recommends all residents wear masks indoors and in public. (People with symptoms, a positive test or exposure to someone with COVID-19 should wear a mask regardless of where they live.) Michigan does not have any orange counties.
To see how the CDC assess your county, check out the interactive map below:
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RELATED: Michigan reports nearly 15,000 new COVID cases in last week; hospitalizations up about 20%
Levels are determined by new COVID cases and hospitalization data in the last seven days. The CDC considers new, per-capita admissions and the percentage of hospital beds occupied by COVID patients.
Counties at the high level are now centered in the northeast part of the country, particularly in New York, Vermont and Maine.
As of Wednesday, there were 604 adult and 30 pediatric patients with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 in hospitals statewide. This was about a 20% increase from a week earlier. The growth rate was about 2-3% in the two prior weeks, according to a weekly Michigan COVID report.
However, the number of people on ventilators and in intensive care decreased. There were about 14% fewer critical care patients this week as compared to the week of April 17. Deaths are also trending downward.
Cases are up. Since the start of April, the state saw it’s seven-day average of new, confirmed cases rise. Almost 9% of tests were positive from April 20 to Wednesday. In March, the weekly rate had fallen below 4%.
RELATED: 62 of 83 counties see case increase: Michigan COVID data for Thursday, April 28
Numbers are growing most in the southeast part of the state. It was there that omicron first gained a foothold late in 2021 and in early 2022.
The omicron subvariant, BA.2, is behind any surge. It is predominant in the United States and Michigan region. It is said to be even more contagious than its predecessor.
So far, though, it is not showing to be especially deadly. Experts have said so many were infected during the winter omicron swell that most are protected, either through vaccination, natural immunity, or both.
Hospitals are not overwhelmed like they were in December and January.
Not every county in Michigan or the United States has a hospital, so each one is assigned a health services area, a geographic region that contains at least one hospital. Counties within each division are attributed the metrics calculated for the entire area and weighted based on each county’s population, a CDC spokesperson earlier said.
Michigan has 83 counties and 25 health service areas, three of which stretch outside the state’s boundaries, according to the CDC.
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