State reports 4,536 new COVID-19 cases over last 2 days

By Allison Donahue, Michigan Advance

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) reported Monday that 523,618 total Michiganders have tested positive for COVID-19 and 13,401 have died from the virus, which is an additional 4,536 cases and 47 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 2,268 per day.

DHHS reports that an additional 44,064 Michiganders have been identified as “probable” cases for COVID-19, as well as 791 probable deaths. Combining the state’s confirmed positive cases with probable cases brings the total up to 567,68243 statewide cases and confirmed deaths with probable deaths brings the total up to 14,192 deaths. The department began tracking probable cases and deaths on April 5. 

The virus has been detected in all of Michigan’s 83 counties. The state’s COVID-19 fatality rate is 2.6%.

Lake Superior State University and two K-12 schools, Weymouth Elementary School in Charlotte and Holland High School in Holland, have new COVID-19 outbreaks as of Monday, according to the state’s weekly school-related outbreak reporting.

In addition to the new outbreaks, 49 K-12 schools and 20 colleges in Michigan have been experiencing ongoing outbreaks, which are outbreaks that had already been identified in previous weeks but have had at least one new associated case in the last 28 days. 

The number of schools experiencing outbreaks this past week is significantly lower than previous weeks, largely due to most K-12 schools and colleges being closed for winter break. 

The first two cases of COVID-19 were reported in the state on March 10. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency that day.

Johns Hopkins University reports that there are more than 90.7 million confirmed cases worldwide and 1.9 million deaths. About one-fifth of those are in the United States, where more than 22.5 million confirmed cases and 375,350 deaths have been recorded.

Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a network of news outlets supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan Demas for questions: [email protected]. Follow Michigan Advance on Facebook and Twitter.