By Laina G. Stebbins, Michigan Advance
The nonpartisan Senate Fiscal Agency (SFA) has calculated that, given the state’s current trajectory, it will take until mid-November for Michigan to reach the desired 70% vaccinated threshold to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
The agency has been tweeting out adjusted estimates every few days. COVID-19 vaccine rates have been slowing in Michigan and elsewhere around the country, despite the spread of the more transmissible Delta variant.
The state of Michigan reports that 5.13 million residents 16 and older have had at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, or 63.4%. About 5.7 million Michiganders would have to get immunized to reach the 70% goal.
The states’s vaccine locator website is here.
Given that it would require ~524,600 vaccines to reach 70% vaccinated for >16 & current pace increased by 800 doses/day from last week, at ~4,900/day, the est. date for 70% is 11/13/21.
— Senate Fiscal Agency (@MI_SenateFiscal) July 29, 2021
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is now also urging both vaccinated and non-vaccinated individuals in all areas of “substantial or high transmission” to wear masks indoors in public, which includes 10 of Michigan’s 83 counties.
Gogebic, Iron, Dickinson, Alpena, Kalkaska, Mason, Van Buren, Cass and Hillsdale counties are all considered areas of substantial transmission; Branch County is the state’s sole county currently recorded as having “high” transmission, according to the CDC’s COVID-19 data tracker.
For its most recent estimate, the SFA said that it will require about 524,600 vaccines to reach the 70% vaccinated threshold of the state’s population 16 years and older.
The current pace has just increased by 800 doses per day from last week, with about 4,900 vaccines per day. Following that trajectory, 70% vaccinated will not be a reality until Nov. 13.
The state’s current unvaccinated population is 2.94 million people, with .2% of the population receiving a first dose daily.
The SFA also notes that, as of Monday, Michigan is averaging 7,872 daily doses with 4,907 first doses. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUBSCRIBE
