1/10/21: 6,331 new cases Friday and Saturday, 260 deaths

Michigan: An expected holiday spike in new COVID-19 case numbers is continuing to afflict the state of Michigan.

State health officials on Friday reported 3,625 new cases of COVID-19, and on Saturday reported 2,706 new cases. That brings the state’s seven day moving average up to 3,136 new cases per day. That’s roughly equivalent to where the state was in early November, before health officials instituted new COVID prevention restrictions.

The state also reported 38 new deaths on Friday and 222 new deaths on Saturday, with 207 of Saturday’s total coming as a result of a review of previous death records. As of Saturday, the state is averaging 108 new deaths per day. Daily death averages had been declining for the two weeks following Christmas.

The state’s positivity rate has remained relatively stable over the past week. On Saturday, the seven day average was 9.31%, which is close to where it’s been for most of the month so far.

One bright spot is the state’s hospitalization numbers. Those have been declining fairly steadily since the beginning of December. On Friday, the state reported 2,480 patients were being treated for COVID-19 in Michigan hospitals. That’s almost 100 fewer than the day before.

Kalamazoo County: Things are not as good in Kalamazoo County, as case numbers and deaths continue to be high.

County officials reported 103 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, bringing the seven day average to about 90 cases per day. That’s a stark increase in average case numbers that have been rising for over a week.

The county reported no new deaths from the coronavirus on Friday, but following a spike in deaths over the previous few days, the county’s average now stands at 3.4 deaths per day – among the highest averages we’ve seen.

County hospitalizations have fluctuated a lot over the past few months, but remain high. Bronson Methodist Hospital reported 35 COVID-19 patients on Friday – four more than the previous day.

Meanwhile, the county’s positivity rate is rising. On average over the week ending Friday, Kalamazoo County has seen about 11% of COVID-19 tests come back positive.

Vaccinations: Vaccinations continue to move slowly in Michigan. As of Thursday, nearly 200,000 Michiganders have receive one or both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, but that’s nowhere close to the number health experts want to see.

Hospitals, local health departments, and other facilities throughout the state have received more than 725,000 doses of vaccine since vaccinations began in December. Nonetheless, only about a quarter of those have made it into people’s arms so far.

In Kalamazoo County, 7,012 doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered so far, though there are more than 20,000 doses of the vaccine being stored in freezers in the county.