Northern Michigan, Kalamazoo see rise in COVID-19 infections – MLive.com
A majority of Michigan counties are at a low COVID-19 risk level this week, though the Upper Peninsula is reporting a rise, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday, March 2.
Michigan is up to 15 counties at a medium COVID-19 Community Level just one week after only two counties met that distinction. It’s the most counties above low risk in more than a month.
Medium level counties include Kalamazoo, St. Joseph, Sanilac and St. Clair in the Lower Peninsula. Up north it includes Alger, Delta, Dickinson, Gogebic, Iron, Keweenaw, Luce, Marquette, Menominee, Ontonagon and Schoolcraft.
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 710 new, confirmed cases per day in the past week
COVID cases didn’t budge much from last week, when the state averaged 709 new confirmed cases per day. Still, it’s the highest seven-day average since Jan. 17.
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 7,483 confirmed and probable cases this week, up from 6,547 last week.
Michigan has reported more than 2.6 million confirmed COVID cases and nearly 437,400 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 16th in the U.S. in new cases per capita
This week, Michigan had the 16th-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 Maine, North Dakota, Kentucky, South Carolina, Louisiana, West Virginia and South Dakota. States with the fewest cases per capita were Hawaii, Georgia, Nevada, Connecticut and Arizona.
For COVID hospitalizations, Michigan had the 20th-most per capita this week. For COVID deaths per capita this week, Michigan was 12th.
41 counties saw rise in cases in last seven days
Of Michigan’s 83 counties, 41 had an increase in cases this week compared to last week.
Wayne County saw a 6% increase week-over-week, while Kalamazoo increased 5%, Genesee increased 10%, and Ingham increased 8%. Meanwhile, Oakland dipped 1%, Macomb decreased 7%, Kent decreased 16% and Washtenaw dropped 15% in new cases compared to a week ago.
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.)
3 Michigan counties at highest risk for cases
Michigan had three county at the highest risk level (Level E) for cases this week. (This is a different metric than the CDC risk levels, as this only takes cases into account.)
Gogebic, Houghton, and Keweenaw counties in the U.P. were at Level E, which means it they have more than 150 cases per day per million residents. Last week, only Iron Country was at the highest level.
The MDHHS has five risk levels for COVID cases:
- Level A: 7-19 cases per day per million residents
- Level B: 20-39 cases per day per million
- Level C: 40-69 cases per day per million
- Level D: 70-149 cases per day per million
- Level E: 150+ cases per day per million
The map below is shaded by the state’s six risk-assessment levels from A to E. This is based on new cases reported per day per million people from Feb. 22 to 28.
The arrows on each county show if new cases this week were higher or lower than last week. Hover over a county to see underlying data. (Hint: Drag the map with your cursor to see the entire U.P.)
(Can’t see the map? 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.
Average test positivity is 12.4%
More than 12% of COVID tests submitted to the state over the last week were positive.
The World Health Organization considers there to be a substantial level community transmission when positivity rates are above 5%, though that gauge was set before at-home testing was available and when testing data was more broadly collected.
Michigan’s rate peaked at 35% in January 2022. It dipped as low as 2% in early March 2022 before climbing again.
The graph below shows the percentage of COVID-19 tests reported that came back positive throughout the pandemic.
(Can’t see the chart? Click here.)
Missaukee County had the highest percent positivity rate this week of all Michigan counties with 22.6% of tests coming back positive. Manistee, Marquette and Crawford counties also topped 19% this week, while Hillsdale (18.8%) and Kalamazoo (18.6%) came close.
To see the COVID test positivity rate for your county, see the searchable table below.
The interactive map below shows the seven-day average testing rate by county. Put your cursor over a county to see details.
(Can’t see the database? Click here.)
(Can’t see the map? Click here.)
Hospitals treating 796 confirmed or suspected adult COVID-19 patients
COVID hospitalizations are up 6.8% this week. There were 796 adults in Michigan hospitals with confirmed or suspected COVID as of Wednesday, March 1.
In January 2022, COVID hospitalizations topped 4,000 most weeks.
Among the 796 adults with COVID hospitalized on Wednesday, 78 were in intensive care and 22 were on a ventilator.
Michigan also had 21 children hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID as of Wednesday.
Michigan is reporting 15 new COVID deaths per day in the past week
Michigan had 15 COVID deaths per day this week. That’s up from nine per day last week. MDHHS didn’t note if there were any backlogs in reporting that could be misrepresenting the trend.
During omicron’s peak last January, Michigan was averaging more than 100 COVID deaths per day.
Michigan has had 37,979 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 4,117 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, 59.4% 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 16.0% of residents have received this bivalent booster so far, or about 1.6 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: 90.6% 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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