Michigan adds 7,505 cases, 118 deaths from COVID-19 over two days

Michigan added 7,505 cases and 118 deaths from COVID-19 on Friday, including totals from Thursday.  

The latest figures from the state Department of Health and Human Services push the overall totals to 1,104,634 confirmed cases and 21,862 deaths since the virus was first detected in the state in March 2020.

The state averaged 3,752 cases per day over the two days. Of the latest deaths reported, 69 were identified during a vital records review, state health officials noted. 

Michigan's COVID-19 infection numbers have been trending upward for more than 13 weeks amid concerns over the highly contagious delta variant.

The state last week added 26,105 cases and 250 deaths. That's up from the week prior when Michigan logged 24,791 additional cases and 237 deaths from the virus. In mid-September, the state added 18,313 cases and 159 deaths from the virus in a week.

Michigan added 7,108 cases and 135 deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday, including totals from Tuesday.  

The weekly record of 50,892 cases was set Nov. 15-21. The second-highest weekly total was 47,316 Nov. 22-28.

Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave full approval to Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, which health experts hope will bolster confidence in vaccinations. About 67.4% of Michigan's population age 16 and older had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of Sept. 22.

State officials set a goal of reaching 70% and hosted a lottery initiative to give those who received their vaccinations the chance to win cash prizes.

About 58.9% of Michigan residents 12 and older are fully vaccinated.

The state health department estimates less than 1% of vaccinated people in Michigan are contracting the virus.

Michigan's latest data

Michigan remains at a high transmission rate. The case rate here has been increasing for three and a half months. 

As of last week, only three states had reported more cases of COVID-19 than Michigan over a seven-day span, based on state data. 

Overall, Michigan ranks 12th nationally for new cases per population over the last seven days, according to data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Two weeks earlier, the state ranked 20th.

Statewide positivity last week climbed to 11.3% from 11.2% the week prior, according to data from Oct. 19.

The proportion of kids getting sick with COVID-19 in the state also is increasing. In Michigan, over 50% of children hospitalized have no reported underlying conditions.

Higher community transmission in Michigan is followed by a higher incidence of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children. MIS-C is a condition in children where multiple organ systems become inflamed or dysfunctional. There are 169 cases in the state, the majority, or 70.2%, are in the ICU. There have been five deaths.

About 99% of positive tests available for sequencing in Michigan were identified as the delta variant over the last four weeks.

About 42% of school districts have mask policies, covering about 60% of students. Case rates among children are higher in counties where school districts do not have mask policies, according to the state health department.

Michigan health officials on Monday reported 101 new COVID-19 outbreaks in schools. Macomb County was leading the state in the number of schools with new outbreaks, reporting 25 new clusters of cases, primarily in high schools. 

There were a total of 858 new cases at K-12 schools in Michigan in the past week.

About 10.2% of hospital beds are filled with COVID-19 patients, up from 9.3% the week prior. 

The majority of patients hospitalized from the virus are unvaccinated, the state health department has said.

As of Sept. 27, Michigan has more than 17,583 confirmed cases of COVID-19 variants — the majority, or 13,667 cases, being B.1.1.7 — the "alpha" variant.

The virus is blamed for more than 716,000 deaths and 45.3 million confirmed infections in the United States.

The state considered 962,955 people recovered from the virus as of Oct. 15.