Michigan’s coronavirus cases just keep going up, as the state broke yet another record for the number of COVID-19 cases reported in one day on Tuesday.
That daily number was 6,473. Over the past week, the state has reported on average more than 5,000 new confirmed cases per day. Those numbers are far higher than we ever saw in the spring, when COVID-19 testing was far more limited.
But this latest surge is not just the result of more tests. The percentage of people testing positive for the virus statewide is now well above 10% over the past week. On Monday, it was over 14%, a positivity rate the state hasn’t seen since April.
This case surge is statewide. But unlike in the spring, where southeast Michigan was the clear hotspot, rates of the virus are now highest across West Michigan, with Kent County hitting a 21% positivity rate on Monday. Other hotspots include parts of the Upper Peninsula, and the cluster of counties in and around Saginaw in mid-Michigan.
Hospitalizations and deaths, which tend to lag behind case surges, are climbing, too. COVID-19 hospitalizations have soared more than 200% in the past three weeks across the state, with West Michigan hospitals particularly hard-hit.
Deaths are slowly but surely climbing too. Michigan recorded 84 new COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, though some of those deaths actually occurred earlier and were reported as part of a vital records review. But the seven-day average for deaths now stands at 46—the highest rate since mid-May.
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