ADRIAN — Lenawee County moved into the “low” COVID-19 community level over this past weekend, as the number of new cases and hospitalizations continued to fall from the delta and omicron surges.
There were no COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the county on Monday morning, according to data posted on the Lenawee County Health Department’s website.
In the “low” category, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that individuals:
- Stay up to date on vaccine boosters or get vaccinated.
- Maintain improved ventilation throughout indoor spaces when possible.
- Follow CDC recommendations for isolation and quarantine, including getting tested if you are exposed to COVID-19 or have symptoms of COVID-19
- Who are immunocompromised or high risk for severe disease have a plan for rapid testing if needed and talk to their health care provider about whether they are a candidate for treatments like oral antivirals, PrEP and monoclonal antibodies.
Masks are not mentioned in the recommendations for the “low” community level of COVID.
The new community levels are based mostly on the number of new COVID-19 hospitalizations in the past week and the percentage of staffed inpatient beds that are occupied by COVID patients.
Looking at cases and COVID test results, the county reported a seven-day average of 60.9 new cases per 100,000 people and a test positivity rate of 3.7% as of March 3. Both are large decreases from the height of the omicron surge, when the seven-day average of new cases per 100,000 reach 1,852 on Jan. 21, and the test positivity rate reached 35.2% on Jan. 19, according to data on the COVID-tracking website mistartmap.info.
The case count has not been as low as it is now since the beginning of August 2021, and the test positivity rate was last this low in mid-July 2021.
Four counties that border Lenawee County — Washtenaw and Monroe in Michigan and Fulton and Lucas in Ohio — remain the “medium” community level where the CDC recommends people who are immunocompromised or otherwise at high risk of serious illness with COVID-19 discuss whether to wear a mask with their health care provider.
Hillsdale and Jackson counties are both in the “low” community level.
Only eight counties in Michigan are in the “high” community COVID level: Clinton, Eaton, Mason, St. Clair and Sanilac in the Lower Peninsula and Gogebic, Luce and Ontonagon in the Upper Peninsula.
In the high level, the CDC recommends wearing a well-fitting mask indoors in public, regardless of vaccination status, including in schools and other indoor, community settings.
Michigan reported far fewer coronavirus cases in the week ending Sunday, adding 7,872 new cases. That’s down 46.8% from the previous week’s tally of 14,793 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19.
Michigan ranked 30th among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the latest week coronavirus cases in the United States decreased 30.4% from the week before, with 323,600 cases reported.
Lenawee County reported 72 cases and two deaths in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported 105 cases and three deaths. Throughout the pandemic it has reported 24,264 cases and 309 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins data. The health department on Monday reported there have been 307 deaths.
>> See how your community has fared with recent coronavirus cases
Michigan ranked 35th among states in share of people receiving at least one shot, with 66.3% of its residents at least partially vaccinated. The national rate is 76.5%, a USA TODAY analysis of CDC data shows. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which are the most used in the United States, require two doses administered a few weeks apart.
In Lenawee County, 55.6% of all county residents have received at least one shot, according to the county health department.
In the week ending Sunday, Michigan reported administering another 108,783 vaccine doses, including 19,222 first doses. In the previous week, the state administered 119,500 vaccine doses, including 25,039 first doses. In all, Michigan reported it has administered 15,314,621 total doses.
As of March 3, there have been 91,968 vaccine doses administered in Lenawee County, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services’s online vaccine dashboard.
Within Michigan, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in Luce County with 257 cases per 100,000 per week; Mason County with 209; and Chippewa County with 209.
In Michigan, 364 people were reported dead of COVID-19 in the week ending Sunday. In the week before that, 479 people were reported dead.
A total of 2,365,827 people in Michigan have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 34,841 people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the United States 79,271,466 people have tested positive and 958,621 people have died.
Note: In the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus data, cases and deaths for the Michigan Department of Corrections and the Federal Correctional Institution separately from Michigan counties.
>> Track coronavirus cases across the United States
Michigan’s COVID-19 hospital admissions falling
USA TODAY analyzed federal hospital data as of Sunday, March 6.
Likely COVID patients admitted in the state:
- Last week: 1,020
- The week before that: 1,265
- Four weeks ago: 2,542
Likely COVID patients admitted in the nation:
- Last week: 58,950
- The week before that: 66,535
- Four weeks ago: 131,215
Hospitals in one states reported more COVID-19 patients than a week earlier, while hospitals in three states had more COVID-19 patients in intensive-care beds. Hospitals in seven states admitted more COVID-19 patients in the latest week than a week prior, the USA TODAY analysis of U.S. Health and Human Services data shows.
The USA TODAY Network is publishing localized versions of this story on its news sites across the country, generated with data from Johns Hopkins University and the Centers for Disease Control. If you have questions about the data or the story, contact Mike Stucka at mstucka@gannett.com.
