6/7/21: Positivity rate officially below 3%

Michigan: The state’s week COVID-19 positivity rate fell below 3% for the first time since early last fall.

In the week ending Friday, 2.69% of coronavirus tests conducted in the state returned positive results. It’s a hopeful sign indicating we may have pulled out of the spring wave of the pandemic. State health officials have long sought to keep the state’s positivity rate below 3%.

The week average of new infections is also reflecting good news about the pandemic. State health officials reported just 388 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday. That brought the seven day average down to 378 new cases per day – the lowest that number has been since July of last year.

The state reported 72 new deaths from the coronavirus on Saturday, with 66 coming from a review of previous death records. That actually caused the average to rise to nearly 29 deaths per day over the previous week.

Kalamazoo County: Kalamazoo's positivity rate has also fallen below 3% - indicating low transmission of the coronavirus in the county.

In the week ending Friday, 2.92% of COVID-19 tests conducted in the county returned positive results.

Meanwhile, other COVID measurements continued to fall late last week.

County health officials on Friday reported just 14 new cases of COVID-19. That pushed the seven day average downward to 10.43 new cases per day.

The county reported no deaths again on Friday marking a full week without any coronavirus fatalities. It's the first time since mid-March that the week average of deaths has been zero.