3/4/21: County receives first doses of J&J vaccine

Vaccines: Kalamazoo County has received its first shipment of a new COVID-19 vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson. The one-shot vaccine is expected to boost the nation’s ability to get people vaccinated quickly.

On Tuesday, the state received nearly 68,000 doses of the J&J vaccine. Of that, 2,100 doses were delivered to Kalamazoo – split between the county’s health department and the county’s two hospitals. The latest stats indicate none has been administered to anybody yet.

Meanwhile, Michigan is coming tantalizingly close to administering 50,000 inoculations per day – a goal set by state officials. On Tuesday, roughly 40,000 shots were given, raising the average to about 47,000 shots per day over the previous week.

Kalamazoo County is also hitting higher vaccination numbers. On Tuesday, county facilities administered 1,870 doses of vaccine, averaging 1,774 doses per day over the previous week.

Michigan: New infections continue to increase in the state, reaching a level not seen in nearly five weeks.

State health officials reported 1,536 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday. That’s the most new infections in a day since January 29. The new numbers caused the state’s seven day moving average to rise to 1,113 new cases per day.

The state also reported five new deaths from the coronavirus. The seven day average stood at almost 23 deaths per day. Since deaths are a lagging indicator of COVID spread, there’s a good chance we’ll see a rise in daily death counts in the next week due to rising infection rates over the past few weeks.

At the same time, the state’s positivity rate remains flat. About 4% of tests conducted in Michigan on Tuesday returned a positive result. The average positivity rate was 3.8% that day – slightly higher than previous days, but not by much.

Hospitalizations declined a bit on Wednesday, reversing an almost week long trend of rising hospitalization rates.

The state reported 882 people being treated for COVID-19 in hospitals in the state. That was 77 fewer than the day before.

Kalamazoo County: New infections declined slightly in the county after two weeks of rising numbers.

County officials reported 31 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday. The seven day average declined to just under 31 new cases per day – one less than the previous day. The average has climbed from a low of almost 19 cases per day on February 16.

There were no new deaths from the coronavirus on Wednesday.

The county’s positivity rate has stayed flat in recent days. On Tuesday, about 5.5% of COVID tests given returned positive results. The average now stands at 5.9% over the previous week. The average has hovered around that rate for most of a week.