5/24/21: More than 8M vaccines administered

Vaccines: Michigan has now administered more than 8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

As of Saturday, 8,021,768 doses of vaccine had been shot into the arms of people in Michigan. In total, more than 57% of the population 16 and older have received at least one dose of vaccine, with another 44.5% having been fully vaccinated.

The rates are a little higher in Kalamazoo County. Nearly half of eligible residents had been fully vaccinated as of Saturday. First doses have gone out to 129,000 people – nearly 57% of the population.

Kalamazoo County: Things are looking up in Kalamazoo.

Health officials reported no new deaths from the coronavirus on Friday, bringing the seven day average down below one death per day for the first time in two weeks.

The county reported just 29 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday. That caused the average to decline to 36.6 new cases per day over the previous week. That’s the lowest the average has been in almost 11 weeks.

The county’s positivity rate is also in decline. In the week ending Friday, 6.15% of COVID-19 tests returned positive results. Health experts have aimed for a rate of 5% or lower as a measure of controlled spread.

Michigan: All COVID measures are on the decline in Michigan as well.

The state reported 2,145 new cases of COVID-19 over the course of Friday and Saturday. That brought the seven day average down to 1,225 new cases per day.

The state also reported 124 new deaths from the coronavirus over the same time period, with 99 coming from a review of previous death records. As of Saturday, the state was experiencing an average of 47 deaths per day in the previous week.

The state’s positivity rate is approaching 5% and could reach that rate sometime this week. As of Friday, 5.64% of COVID-19 tests returned positive results.

The number of people being hospitalized dropped by 96 on Friday, to 1,569 COVID-19 patients in hospitals in the state.