DETROIT — Michigan experienced a spike in the coronavirus as it added 16,681 cases and 160 deaths from COVID-19 Tuesday, including totals from the previous six days, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
Michigan reported an average of about 2,383 cases per day over the last seven days, a 27% increase from 1,872 cases per day a week prior. On July 5, the state said it had added 13,102 cases and 64 deaths from the virus in the previous week.
Case rates and hospitalizations increased this week after a slight decline last week. Before that, from May to mid-June, case rates and hospitalizations fell for five weeks.
On Monday, the state reported that 794 adults and 19 pediatric patients were hospitalized with confirmed infections, an increase from last week's 690 adults and 16 children.
Inpatient records were set on Jan. 10, when 4,580 adults were hospitalized with COVID-19.
On Monday in Michigan, about 4.5% of the state's hospital beds were filled with COVID-19 patients, and there was an average of 1,055 emergency room visits related to COVID-19 per day in the state. That compares with 24% of hospital beds being full and 2,889 daily emergency room visits due to the virus in the first week of January.
Between June 24-July 1, about 16.5% of Michigan's COVID-19 tests returned positive.
All Metro Detroit health departments are following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines that recommend indoor masking for public settings and K-12 schools as the rate of infection has grown from "medium" to "high."
Tuesday’s additions bring the state's overall totals to 2,636,214 cases and 37,142 deaths since the virus was first detected here in March 2020.
No counties in Michigan this week are considered at a "high" level for the increased burden on health care or severe disease.
Another 14 counties, mostly in northern Michigan, have a "medium" transmission level, according to the state health department: Alger, Barry, Calhoun, Crawford, Gladwin, Iron, Kalkaska, Monroe, Oscoda, Otsego, Roscommon, Sanilac, St. Clair and Washtenaw.
Case counts are well below early January, when the state set a new high mark with more than 20,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 per day.
In Michigan, variants of the virus have moved at a high rate, proving more contagious than past variants and infecting unvaccinated and vaccinated residents.
A new iteration of the omicron variant, BA.2, now is the dominant strain across Michigan and the country, but experts say another surge of cases is unlikely.
In Michigan, 302 cases of a rare inflammatory condition in children linked with the coronavirus have been reported to the CDC. About 65% of kids with the syndrome are admitted to intensive care units, and there have been five deaths.
As of Monday, 31 outbreaks were reported over the prior week. The majority, 26, were in long-term care facilities and senior assisted living centers. The state is tracking 317 ongoing outbreak cases.
About 66% of state residents, or 6.6 million, have received their first doses of a vaccine, and 60% are fully vaccinated. More than 238,000 children ages 5-11 in Michigan, or 29%, have received their first dose of the vaccine.
More than 3.2 million individuals, or 35% of the eligible population, have received a vaccine booster in Michigan and 5.6 million are fully vaccinated.
U.S. regulators authorized the first COVID-19 shots for infants and preschoolers, paving the way for vaccinations to begin this week. The Food and Drug Administration's panel unanimous recommend the shots from Moderna and Pfizer for children between 6 months and 5 years old.
———
