Michigan’s COVID-19 levels medium in most of UP, low everywhere else – MLive.com

Eight Michigan counties are at a medium COVID-19 risk level this week, with the rest of the state continuing to report low levels of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations.

The Upper Peninsula is home to all eight medium-level counties, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday, March 9. They include Alger, Baraga, Delta, Houghton, Keweenaw, Luce, Marquette and Schoolcraft.

Last week, Michigan’s Lower Peninsula had Kalamazoo, St. Joseph, Sanilac and St. Clair in the yellow as well. Those counties have since returned to low risk level.

The CDC uses Community Levels to determine COVID risk, putting counties in one of three buckets: low (green), medium (yellow) or high (orange). The other 68 counties remain at low community levels.

The CDC recommends masking indoors in public while in counties at a high Community Level, regardless of vaccination status. However, people with symptoms, a positive test or exposure to COVID-19 should still wear a mask regardless of the county, the CDC says.

Michigan hasn’t had a county at a high level since January.

Here’s the latest map showing the Community Level for each Michigan county. Tap/hover over a county to see details.

(Can’t see the map? Click here.)

The CDC considers cases and hospitalizations when determining Community Levels. The goal is to prevent severe disease and limit strain on hospitals.

For hospitalizations, the CDC looks at three pieces: the percentage of staffed hospital beds occupied by COVID patients, COVID hospital admissions per capita and COVID cases per capita.

A county is at a high level when there are 200-plus new cases per 100,000 for the week and either (A) 10-plus new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 or (B) at least 10% of the staffed inpatient beds are occupied by COVID patients.

If hospitalizations are particularly high, even a county with low cases can be at a high level, per the CDC formula.

(Not every county has a hospital, so each is assigned a health services area, a larger region that contains at least one hospital. Counties are attributed the metrics for the entire area, weighted based on each county’s population. For example: Monroe County’s health services area also includes the Toledo, Ohio area.)

Here’s more on the latest COVID-19 trends in Michigan.

Michigan is reporting 867 new, confirmed cases per day in the past week

COVID cases increased from last week when the state averaged 710 new confirmed cases per day. Cases have increased four consecutive weeks, with the latest average coming in as the highest since Jan. 17.

Only Schoolcraft County reported no new cases last week. The top 10 counties by new cases per 100,000 people were Clare (379), Marquette (186), Branch (183), Barry (149), Keweenaw (147), Hillsdale (120), Houghton (118), Chippewa (112), Oceana (105), and Calhoun (102).

The top 10 counties by total new cases without accounting for population were Wayne (1,384), Macomb (653), Oakland (563), Genesee (361), Kent (230), Ingham (172), Washtenaw (163), Calhoun (137), Kalamazoo (124) and Marquette (123).

Cases peaked in January 2022 at the start of the omicron wave with Michigan averaging 17,595 cases per day at one point.

Cases are “confirmed” when there’s a positive result from an NAAT/RT-PCR test. Cases are “probable” when there’s a reported antigen (rapid) test or if somebody has symptoms and was exposed to a person with COVID-19.

All graphics in this story except the initial one (which uses CDC case calculations) are based only on “confirmed” numbers.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services reports COVID cases once per week. There were 6,903 confirmed and probable cases this week, down from 7,483 last week.

Michigan has reported more than 2.6 million confirmed COVID cases and more than 438,000 probable cases since the pandemic began.

The chart below shows the seven-day average for new, confirmed COVID cases throughout the pandemic.

(Can’t see the chart? Click here.)

Michigan ranks 15th in the U.S. in new cases per capita

This week, Michigan had the 15h-most COVID cases per capita of the 50 U.S. states, per the New York Times.

States with the most cases per capita this week were Florida, Kentucky, Maine, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Illinois. States with the fewest cases per capita were Georgia, Connecticut, Hawaii, and Nevada.

For COVID hospitalizations, Michigan had the 19th-most per capita this week. For COVID deaths per capita this week, Michigan was 10th.

50 counties saw rise in cases in last seven days

Of Michigan’s 83 counties, 50 had an increase in cases this week compared to last week.

See the database below to search/sort case totals by county. The chart also shows the percent change from week to week and the seven-day case average per capita.

(Can’t see the database? Click here.)

COVID case totals don’t tell the whole story. At-home tests are not reported, so those aren’t included in the data. That’s why it’s also key to look at percent positivity of reported tests and data on hospitalizations and deaths.

Hospitals treating 706 confirmed or suspected adult COVID-19 patients

COVID hospitalizations are down 11.3% this week. There were 706 adults in Michigan hospitals with confirmed or suspected COVID as of Wednesday, March 8, compared to 796 a week ago.

In January 2022, COVID hospitalizations topped 4,000 most weeks.

Among the adults with COVID hospitalized on Wednesday, 77 were in intensive care and 24 were on a ventilator.

Michigan also had 20 children hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID as of Wednesday.

Michigan is reporting 11 new COVID deaths per day in the past week

Michigan had 11 COVID deaths per day this week. That’s down from 15 per day last week. MDHHS did data backlogs in reporting that could be misrepresenting trends.

Twenty-seven counties reported at least one new death, led by Wayne with 18, and Macomb and Oakland counties with 11 each. Other top reporters were Kent with eight, Genesee and Saginaw with four, Ottawa with three, and Washtenaw, Ionia and Clinton with two each.

During omicron’s peak last January, Michigan was averaging more than 100 COVID deaths per day.

Michigan has had 38,061 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 4,144 probable COVID deaths since the pandemic began.

The chart below shows the seven-day average for COVID deaths throughout the pandemic.

(Can’t see the chart? Click here.)

Vaccinations: 16.0% of residents have received omicron-specific booster

About 64.0% of Michigan residents have gotten at least one COVID shot, 59.5% have received the full original regimen and 38.7% have been boosted.

The omicron-specific COVID-19 booster is available in Michigan from both Pfizer and Moderna. About 16% of residents have received this bivalent booster so far, or about 1.61 million residents.

Below is a breakdown by age group of Michiganders who’ve gotten at least one shot (initiated), those who have two shots (completed) and those who are considered “up to date” on COVID vaccines, as of Wednesday, March 1.

• 75 and older: 87.3% initiated; 82.6% completed, 35.6% up to date
  
• 65 to 74: 90.5% initiated; 86.6% completed, 40.2% up to date
  
• 50 to 64: 77% initiated; 72.9% completed, 21.4% up to date
  
• 40 to 49: 67.9% initiated; 63.2% completed, 12.4% up to date
  
• 30 to 39: 66.4% initiated; 60.6% completed, 10.2% up to date
  
• 20 to 29: 56.3% initiated; 50.4% completed, 6.1% up to date
  
• 16 to 19: 57.2% initiated; 52.3% completed, 5.9% up to date
  
• 12 to 15: 50.2% initiated; 46.7% completed, 7.2% up to date
  
• 5 to 11: 31.2% initiated; 28.3% completed, 4.7% up to date
  
• Younger than 5: 9.6% initiated, 5.4% completed, 3.4% up to date
  

For more statewide data, visit MLive’s coronavirus data page.

To find a testing site near you, check out the state’s online test find send an email to COVID19@michigan.gov, or call 888-535-6136 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays.

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