1/31/21: Vaccine waiting lists grow as vaccine rollout slowly progresses

Vaccines: More than half of the 65-and-older population of Kalamazoo County have signed up to be vaccinated against COVID-19. When that will actually happen is still up in the air.

New doses of the vaccine are slowly rolling into the county. Facilities received just under 10,000 doses last week, which is more than previous weeks, but still far short of the number needed to meet the demand.

As of Friday, more than 28,000 doses of the vaccine had been administered in Kalamazoo County, with more than 6,500 receiving both doses needed for full immunity. Kalamazoo County has received requests from 21,532 people age 65 and older for inoculation.

More than 900,000 doses of the vaccine have been administered statewide as of Friday. More than 174,000 have received both doses. The state is similarly struggling to give shots to everyone who wants one. But they are inoculating an average of about 35,000 people per day over the past week.

Michigan: New infections and deaths from COVID-19 continue to decline in the state.

State health officials reported 1,774 new infections on Friday and 1,358 new infections on Saturday. That brought the state’s seven day moving average down to 1,596 new cases per day. That’s the lowest the average has been since mid-October, when the state was on the upswing of the fall pandemic surge.

Officials also reported six new deaths on Friday and 104 on Saturday, with 93 of Saturday’s number coming from a review of previous death records. The state is averaging about 44 deaths per day over the week ending Saturday.

The state’s positivity rate is coming ever closer to 5%. That’s the target state officials pointed to over the summer as a requirement for reopening the economy. On Friday, 4.4% of COVID-19 tests came back positive. That brought the average positivity rate to 5.5%.

Kalamazoo County: While new infection numbers are continuing to go down, Kalamazoo’s COVID death rate ticked up slightly on Friday.

County officials reported 31 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, bringing the seven day moving average down to about 39 new cases per day. At the same time, the county reported two new deaths from the coronavirus. That caused Kalamazoo’s daily death average to rise a little bit to 2.43 deaths per day over the previous week.

Kalamazoo County’s positivity rate is declining. On Friday, the county reported 3.81% of COVID-19 tests came back positive. That brought the average to 6.58% – a hopeful sign for the county.