2/18/21: New deaths cause 7-day average to rise

Michigan: State health officials announced that 85 more people have died as a result of COVID-19 in Michigan. Most of them, 72, were previous deaths that were discovered during a review of medical records. All had died during the month of February. That caused the state’s seven day moving average to increase to 31.6 deaths per day.

The state also reported 888 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday. That brought the average down to 845 new cases per day over the previous week.

Michigan’s positivity rate dropped below 3% on Wednesday. Of the roughly 32,500 tests conducted that, only 2.85% came back positive.

Kalamazoo County After nearly a week of no coronavirus deaths in the county, officials reported two new deaths on Thursday. That brought the county’s average back up slightly to 0.3 deaths per day over the previous week.

The county also reported 22 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday. Kalamazoo is averaging just under 19 new infections per day over the past week.

Vaccines: Winter storms have delayed some shipments of coronavirus vaccines to facilities in Michigan. That comes as increasing vaccination efforts are leading to dwindling supplies in some places.

As of Wednesday, the state had just over 560,000 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines on hand; however, those supplies are spread out across thousands of hospitals, pharmacies, medical clinics, and health departments in all 83 counties in Michigan.

That’s hampering the state’s efforts to get people vaccinated. Between Sunday and Wednesday, about 104,000 doses of the vaccine have been administered throughout the state. That’s compared to 155,000 vaccinated during the same time period last week.

Kalamazoo County is continuing with its vaccination efforts undaunted. Facilities in the county inoculated 2,318 people on Wednesday and are averaging just under 2,000 shots a day over the past week.