4/15/21: Infection numbers reach highest level in Kalamazoo

Kalamazoo County: The week average of new COVID-19 infections has reached a new high in Kalamazoo County.

County health officials reported 195 new cases of the coronavirus on Wednesday. That pushed the seven day average to 152.29 new cases per day – the highest it has ever been.

At the same time, the county reported no new deaths. That kept the average at one death per day over the past week. That’s close to what the average daily number of deaths was on November 30, the peak of the fall surge of the virus. Deaths rose over the following two weeks to nearly four per day on December 16.

There is a good chance that deaths in Kalamazoo County will follow the same pattern – with deaths rising two weeks after case counts. However, a number of factors, including vaccination rates, could also keep death numbers low.

Michigan: Hospitalizations from COVID-19 are rising faster in the state than they did during the fall.

A weekly status update from the state’s health department shows that hospitalizations are 16% higher at this point in the surge compared with similar infection numbers from the fall.

The state reported that 4,240 people were being treated for COVID-19 in hospitals in the state on Wednesday. That’s just 86 people short of the peak of the fall surge.

State health officials reported 7,955 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday. However, the seven day average dropped slightly to 7,006 new cases per day.

That, combined with declining positivity rates, have led some to speculate that the current surge of the coronavirus may be leveling off.

On average, 15.46% of coronavirus tests conducted in the state have returned positive results over the past week. That number has been going down for almost a week.

At the same time, deaths from the coronavirus have been increasing. On Wednesday, the state reported 33 new deaths, pushing the seven day average up just a little to about 42 deaths per day.

Vaccines: More than 28% of the adult population of the state has now been fully immunized against COVID-19.

The state is attempting to initiate a surge of vaccines to combat the surge of new infections. That effort has been hampered by a pause in the use of vaccines produced by Johnson & Johnson.

Still, vaccine providers in Michigan are administering an average of more than 96,000 doses each day over the past week.

More than a third of the adult population of Kalamazoo County has now been fully inoculated. Nearly half the population has had one shot of vaccine so far.

Facilities in the county have administered an average of 3,238 doses of vaccine per day over the past week.