6/10/21: State hits lowest positivity rate since pandemic began

Michigan: In the week ending Tuesday, just 2.1% of COVID-19 tests conducted in the state returned positive results. That’s the lowest the state’s positivity rate has been since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.

We came close to that number last June when the state hit a positivity rate of 2.2%. Since then, the rate has fluctuated wildly, reaching nearly 17% in April.

New infection numbers continued to decline on Wednesday. State health officials reported 257 new cases of COVID-19, pushing the seven day average down to 333 new cases per day.

The state also reported just 7 deaths from the coronavirus on Wednesday. That brought the average down to almost 33 deaths per day over the prior week.

Hospitalizations also continued to fall. The state reported 728 coronavirus patients being treated in hospitals in the state on Wednesday. That’s a little over 200 fewer than a week earlier.

Kalamazoo County: Kalamazoo's positivity rate has also continued to decline. Though not as low as the state as a whole, the county's positivity rate is well under 3%.

In the week ending Tuesday, 2.73% of COVID-19 tests were positive. That's down from a high of 17% two months ago.

County officials reported just 8 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday. That caused the seven day average to drop to 9.4 new cases per day.

The county reported no new deaths from the coronavirus. Two people have died in the past week.