3/31/21: Michigan leading country in new COVID cases

Michigan: Michigan is leading the nation in COVID numbers.

As a proportion of population, Michigan has more new cases of COVID-19 than any other state. With a positivity rate of 15.4% on Monday, Michigan is surpassing the rest of the country in that measure as well.

On Tuesday, the state added 5,177 new cases of the coronavirus. That pushed the seven day average up to 4,680 new cases per day – the highest average since December 15.

The state’s COVID death numbers also ticked up on Tuesday. Officials reported 48 new deaths, with 20 coming after a review of previous death records. The seven day average rose more than 4 to 23.3 new deaths per day.

Hospitalizations continued to worsen. The state reported that 2,446 people were being treated for COVID-19 in hospitals in the state on Tuesday – 126 more than the previous day.

Kalamazoo County: COVID measurements aren’t much better in the county, however new infection and death averages dropped a bit on Tuesday.

County health officials reported 71 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday. That caused the seven day average to drop seven to 94 new cases per day.

No new people have died in the county as a result of the coronavirus. A correction to the county’s death total caused the county’s average to drop to 0.14 new deaths per day over the past week.

On Monday, 14.88% of COVID-19 tests conducted in the county returned positive results. That pushed the county’s week average positivity rate to 14.19%.

Vaccines: The state is vaccinating nearly 80,000 people per day.

More than 554,000 inoculations have been conducted in Michigan over the past week. As of Tuesday, 1,585,012 Michiganders have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.

In Kalamazoo County, vaccine providers are inoculating an average of 3,384 people per day. That’s a record since vaccines first became available in December. In total, 47,724 county residents have been fully immunized against the coronavirus.