4/27/21: Outbreaks slowing down in Michigan

Outbreaks: The number of outbreaks of COVID-19 in Michigan is beginning to show signs of declining.

In its latest weekly report, released Monday, state health officials said there were 196 new outbreaks of the coronavirus in Michigan. That’s a 28% decrease over last week’s report.

School-based outbreaks also declined over the past week. There are 223 new and ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks in K-12 schools and colleges in Michigan. That’s 19 fewer than last week’s report. The number of people infected in school-based outbreaks also declined, with 10,771 people having contracted the coronavirus.

Michigan: All coronavirus metrics declined on Monday in the state.

Health officials reported 6,524 new cases of COVID-19 over the course of Sunday and Monday. That reduced the seven day moving average to 4,566 new cases per day – down from a high of 7,000 just two weeks ago.

The state reported 35 new deaths on Sunday and Monday, reducing the average by about three to 60.4 deaths per day over the past week.

The state’s average positivity rate dipped below 12% on Sunday. Just 10.29% of COVID-19 tests conducted on Sunday returned a positive result.

And hospitalizations continued to decline over the weekend. As of Monday, 3,688 people were being treated for COVID-19 in hospitals in the state. That’s almost 300 fewer than was reported on Friday.

Kalamazoo County: Kalamazoo’s metrics are a little more bleak than the rest of the state.

County health officials reported 265 new cases of COVID-19 over Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. That kept the seven day average exactly where it was on Friday – 108.7 new cases per day.

The county reported five new deaths from the coronavirus over the weekend. That prompted the average to rise to just below one death per day over the past week.

However, the county’s positivity rate is declining, as it has done for most of the past two weeks. In the week ending Sunday, 12.7% of coronavirus tests conducted in the county returned positive results – still high, but abating.

And hospitalizations seem to be coming down after reaching record highs in the county just a couple weeks ago. On Monday, 106 people were being treated for COVID-19 in the county’s two hospitals. That’s 19 fewer than a week ago.