Officials say crowds caused spike in testing, but not infections in Kalamazoo

Health experts were worried in early June. As protests of police brutality filled city streets and businesses began to reopen, they warned that cases of COVID-19 may spike.

Fortunately, that doesn’t seem to have happened. Not in Kalamazoo County anyway.

Kalamazoo County health officials said they have seen an increase in testing for the coronavirus, but not an increase in positive test results, according to an article on MLive.

As of Monday, Kalamazoo County was conducting an average of 1,074.6 tests per day with only about 2.4% of those coming back positive.

“It is a great sign that we haven’t seen a huge spike in the number of new cases,” said Kalamazoo Epidemiologist Mary Franks. “We haven’t seen what’s called a super spreader event where one person infects multiple people at one exposure site.”

Still, she says, it’s important to stay vigilant.

“We still need to be really diligent, because we’re still at risk,” she said. “People dropping their guard will result in a spike in cases.”

You can read the full story here.