By Allison Donahue, Michigan Advance
The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) reported Monday that 502,119 total Michiganders have tested positive for COVID-19 and 12,678 have died from the virus, which is an additional 4,992 cases and 80 deaths since Saturday.
In September, the state stopped releasing case, death and testing numbers on Sundays, citing staff shortages and variance in data.
Over the two days, Sunday and Monday, the average number of new confirmed cases is 2,496 per day.
DHHS reports that an additional 41,492 Michiganders have been identified as “probable” cases for COVID-19, as well as 713 probable deaths. Combining the state’s confirmed positive cases with probable cases brings the total up to 543,611 statewide cases and confirmed deaths with probable deaths brings the total up to 13,391 deaths. The department began tracking probable cases and deaths on April 5.
“Since the first cases of COVID-19 were recorded in Michigan, the vast majority of Michiganders have done their part to protect themselves, their families, and our frontline workers and small business owners. Now, there is hope on the horizon,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement Monday. “My administration, led by Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, has been working with local health officials and health care providers to begin distributing the safe and effective vaccine, starting with our most vulnerable populations like health care workers and skilled nursing home residents and staff.”
Whitmer also said she was proud to sign the $106 million COVID-19 relief legislation last month, which is something she has been pushing for since November. Now she is urging Congress to pass COVID-19 relief legislation that will include state funding.
The virus has been detected in all of Michigan’s 83 counties. The state’s COVID-19 fatality rate is 2.5%.
Oakland and Wayne counties have the highest number of confirmed cases with 55,395 and 55,481 respectively. Combined with the city of Detroit, which has its own health department, the whole of Wayne County is reporting a total of 81,633 cases and 3,489 deaths.
Keweenaw is currently the only county in the state with total case numbers lower than 100. The majority of counties have caseloads in the thousands.
Other counties reporting case numbers over 10,000 include Macomb, Kent, Genesee, Ottawa, Washtenaw, Ingham, Saginaw and Kalamazoo.
The first two cases of COVID-19 were reported in the state on March 10. Whitmer declared a state of emergency that day.
Johns Hopkins University reports that there are more than 85.4 million confirmed cases worldwide and 1.8 million deaths. About one-fifth of those are in the United States, where more than 20.7 million confirmed cases and 352,620 deaths have been recorded.
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