Michigan on Tuesday added 438 cases and 21 deaths from COVID-19 over a four-day period including the holiday weekend.
The figures bring Michigan’s total number of cases to895,395 and deaths to 19,775 since the virus was first detected in March 2020, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.
Last week, the state has added a total of 1,008 cases and 47 deaths from the virus, breaking a 10-week record of declining cases.
From June 20-26, the state added 785 cases and 92 deaths from the virus, a decrease from the week prior when the state added 1,033 cases and 72 deaths from the virus.
The weekly record of 50,892 cases was set Nov. 15-21. The second highest weekly total was 47,316 Nov. 22-28.
The weekly record of 808 deaths was recorded in mid-December.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in April announced the “MI Vacc to Normal” plan tying future COVID-19 restrictions to the percentage of residents who have received their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine. The state lifted its remaining COVID-19 restrictions June 22 after rolling back many others in recent weeks, including indoor and outdoor capacity limitations.
As of Friday, nearly 62% of Michigan residents over age 16 had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
As children ages 12-15 in the state became eligible for the Pfizer vaccine last month, the increase in the population decreased the percentage of the population vaccinated to about 56%.
Whitmer also unveiled a $5 million initiative on Thursday that will offer college scholarships and cash prizes to Michigan residents who have gotten their COVID-19 vaccine, saying the program will save and change lives.
The highly transmissible Delta variant accounts for 20% of recent coronavirus cases in the country, CDC head Rochelle Walensky said in June, although overall case numbers are at their lowest point since March 2020. In fact, the past week had the lowest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths globally since this February.
Michigan’s latest data
Michigan has the eight-lowest case rate and 10th-highest death rate over the last seven days in the United States, according to the CDC’s COVID data tracker.
Statewide positivity has dropped to 1.3%.
Grand Rapids, Detroit, Kalamazoo, Saginaw and Lansing are experiencing the fastest growth in COVID-19 cases.
Those ages 30-39 have the highest case rates in the state, followed by 10-19, then 20-29. Since April, case rates have decreased more than 50% for those between the ages of 50 and 79.
From January to May, there have been 438 outbreaks from youth sports resulting in 1,664 infections, with the most clusters from basketball, hockey and wrestling. In the past week, the largest number of new cases have been baseball, dance, track, lacrosse and volleyball.
About 2% of hospital beds are filled with COVID-19 patients.
As of Friday, 234 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, with 65 in an intensive care unit and 33 other patients on ventilators. That’s a 94% drop from April 19 when hospitalizations peaked with 4,158 patients.
State health department officials remain cautious as new variants of COVID-19 spread. The variants are identified through target testing and state officials expect there are cases of variants that have not been identified or recorded.
As of June 29, Michigan has 13,485 confirmed cases of COVID-19 variants — the majority, or 12,753 cases, being B.1.1.7.
The first case of the B.1.1.7 variant was identified in January in a University of Michigan student who had traveled from the United Kingdom. There are 533 cases of the variant within the Michigan Department of Corrections after an outbreak of 90 cases at the Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility in Ionia County.
The first case of the South African variant B.1.351 was confirmed by the state Bureau of Laboratories in a boy living in Jackson County. There are a total of 76 cases of the variant.
The first case of the P.1. variant from Brazil was identified in a Bay County resident. There are now 294 confirmed cases of P.1.
There are also 307 confirmed cases of B.1.427 and B.1.429, two variants formed in California.
The first case of B.1.617 was identified in Clinton County in May. The “Delta variant” was initially detected in India in October. There are now 52 cases in the state.
Wayne County has the largest spread of the B.1.1.7 variant with more than 1,263 cases and an additional 590 in Detroit. Wayne, Washtenaw, Macomb, Livingston and Genesee counties have six of the seven variants. Oakland and Clinton counties have all the reported variants.
Vaccines administered
As of Friday, the state had administered 9 million of 11.4 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine distributed. Nearly 4.7 million people in the state are fully vaccinated.
The state’s fully vaccinated population includes 74% of all seniors 65 years and older, 61% of people aged 50 to 64; 50% of people age 40 to 49; 45% of people age 30 to 39; 35% of people age 20 to 29; and 34% of people age 16 to 19.
Moderna said its COVID-19 vaccine strongly protects kids as young as 12 and aims to be next in line to distribute the vaccine to that age group. It plans to submit its teen data to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other global regulators in early July.
Less than 1% of people who are fully vaccinated test positive, according to the state’s metrics.
In Detroit, vaccination rates lag. About 38% of residents so far have received one dose, according to the city’s COVID-19 dashboard. That’s compared to 63% in outer-Wayne County, 55% in Macomb County and 66% in Oakland and Washtenaw counties.
To ramp up vaccinations Detroit is offering “good neighbor” incentives and walk-up vaccination clinics at the TCF Center, Farewell Recreational Center, Northwest Activities Center and the Samaritan Center. No appointment is needed.
The virus is blamed for more than 605,000 deaths and 33.7 million confirmed infections in the U.S.
The number of active outbreaks is down 42% since last week. It’s also the first week in more than a year there were no K-12 reported outbreaks.
As of Monday, the state is tracking 132 active outbreaks including one outbreak was in long-term care facility, two in manufacturing and two in office settings.
The state considered 865,577 people recovered from the virus as of June 25.
srahal@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @SarahRahal_
