State reports 26 new COVID deaths, 722 new cases

State health officials reported 722 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday, a number that is higher than average but not extremely so. The seven day moving average of new cases is 650 cases per day.

But the notable statistic for the day is the number of deaths. The state reported 26 deaths from COVID-19 Thursday.

Most of those deaths, 17, were discovered after a review of previous death records. Only nine of those deaths occurred during the 24 hour period prior to reporting.

The number of deaths is in line with the average which currently stands at roughly 9 per day.

A rare bright spot in the statistics is southwest Michigan, which has seen a decline in new cases over the past few weeks, according to an article on MLive.

Michigan Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun mentioned the Kalamazoo region during a press conference Wednesday. The Kalamazoo region, which is the label health officials use for most of southwest Michigan, is still in the “medium-high risk” category with between 20 and 40 new cases per million people per day.

You can read more here.