COVID Update: Case counts down ahead of holiday

Kalamazoo County: The number of COVID-19 cases headed downward again in Kalamazoo County prior to the July 4 holiday weekend. But public health experts are waiting to see if the Independence Day celebrations will lead to a new spike in infections.

Health officials reported 373 confirmed and probable cases of the coronavirus over the past seven days. That led to an average of 53.3 new cases per day. That’s a marked drop from last week’s average (66 new cases per day), which was itself a steep increase over the previous week.

There were no new reported COVID deaths in Kalamazoo County in the past week. Like case numbers, death numbers have been fluctuating a lot over the past few weeks.

For the first time in three weeks, state health officials reported local hospitalization numbers. Kalamazoo County’s two hospitals were treating a combined 28 people with COVID-19 as of Monday. That’s six fewer people than were accounted for on June 13. Overall, hospitalizations in Kalamazoo County have been low since mid-March — but not extremely low.

Michigan: Statewide trends followed the local ones pretty closely, with infections and deaths declining after a recent spike.

State health officials reported 13,102 new cases of COVID-19 in the state over the past week. That pushed the average down to 1,872 new cases per day.

Deaths also declined. The state reported 64 new deaths from COVID over the past week, down from 174 the previous week. On average, about nine people succumbed to the coronavirus each of the past seven days. That's the lowest the average has been in a month.

The state has not reported statewide hospitalization data yet this week.