2/14/21: State, county vaccination efforts reach new highs

Vaccines: The State of Michigan and Kalamazoo County have both had a record week for new vaccinations.

In the middle of last week, the state was averaging more than 45,000 vaccinations per day. That number dropped somewhat by week’s end – to 42,000 vaccinations per day – but that number may rise again after counties report their vaccination numbers in the coming days.

So far, more than 1.5 million doses of the vaccine have been administered in Michigan, with nearly 460,000 people having received both doses needed for full immunity.

As of Thursday – the latest day for which data was available – Kalamazoo County had administered nearly 11,000 doses of the vaccine in the previous week. That’s nearly 3,000 doses more than in the same time period the week before.

On Thursday, the county was averaging about 1,500 doses per day – a record.

So far, more than 47,000 doses have been administered with more than 15,000 people having received both doses of the vaccine.

Michigan: The state is averaging less than 1,000 new cases of the coronavirus per day, as the daily number continues to decline.

The state reported 1,193 new cases on Friday and 852 new cases on Saturday. That brought the seven day moving average to 939 new cases per day – the lowest average since October 9.

The state’s average positivity rate is also declining – reaching just 3.77% on Saturday. State health officials would like to get the average positivity rate below 3%.

Kalamazoo County: Kalamazoo County’s daily infection and COVID death numbers remained stable on Friday.

On that day, county health officials reported 32 new cases of the coronavirus and no new deaths. Despite that, the seven day moving average of deaths remained steady at 0.43 deaths per day. The average of new infections rose slightly to 21.86 new cases per day.

The county’s positivity rate is also approaching 3%. In the week ending Friday, an average of 3.66% of COVID-19 tests conducted in the county returned positive results. That indicates we are close to getting the spread of the coronavirus under control.