Michigan public health officials confirmed Tuesday an additional 6,313 COVID-19 cases and 29 virus deaths.
Those cumulative totals represent testing data collected Saturday through Tuesday. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) publishes new case, death, and vaccination numbers every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Of the 29 deaths reported, 10 were identified during a vital records review. Over the past four days, the state has averaged 1,578 cases per day, down from 2,247 cases per day, Aug. 31 through Sept. 1, a 29.7 percent decrease.
The four-day case total brought the state’s total confirmed cases and deaths to 961,953 and 20,396 since the onset of the pandemic.
With school starting last week for many Michigan public school districts, some health experts were anticipating an increase in the number of school-related outbreaks. Nearly 60 percent of Michigan’s public school students – 717,740 students in over 200 public school districts – are currently required to wear face masks under local health department orders.
As of Tuesday, most of the state’s 106 new virus outbreaks were concentrated in K-12 schools (31 new outbreaks) involving 178 cases and long-term care facilities (19 new outbreaks).
There are currently 44 new and ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks involving K-12 schools, colleges, and universities that include 405 cases. This includes a new outbreak identified at Adams Elementary in Midland involving 23 cases and another outbreak involving 14 cases at Gladwin Elementary in Gladwin.
Oakland County saw the largest increase in cases at 1,215 followed by Wayne County at 1,093 (excluding Detroit), Kent County at 989, Macomb County at 945 and Ottawa County at 458. Detroit saw an increase of 389 cases.
Over the past seven days, Oakland County is averaging 91.13 cases per day per 100,000 residents, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a 37.48 percent increase over the previous seven days. Wayne County’s 7-day average case rate is 75.06 cases per day per 100,000 residents, a 40.93 percent decrease over the previous seven days.
36 of the state’s 83 counties reported at least one new death, according to MDHHS data. Wayne County, including the City of Detroit, recorded 15 new virus deaths while Oakland County confirmed 7 new deaths.
The state’s COVID-19 case and testing positivity rates continue to remain high due to the spread of the Delta variant, but are beginning to show signs of improvement. Statewide, there are over 1,200 Michiganders hospitalized with COVID-19, the majority being in southeast Michigan, with over 75 percent of the state’s hospital beds occupied.
Michigan’s 7-day average case rate currently stands at 106.3 cases per day per 100,000 residents, a a 31 percent decrease over the previous seven days, which stood at 154.2 cases per day. Even with the decrease, Michigan is still in the high community transmission category, which is defined by the CDC as averaging at least 100 new cases per day per 100,000 population over a 7-day period.
The state’s 7-day average testing posivity rate continues to average between 8-10 percent.
The CDC is also reporting that 89.47 percent of U.S. counties have high community transmission levels, including the majority of Michigan’s 83 counties. That’s a 5.5 percent decrease over the previous seven days.
As of Sept. 7, the state’s vaccination coverage rate for residents 16 and older was 66.2 percent with 5,364,182 residents receiving at least one dose including 37.9 percent for those aged 12-15, 46.1 percent for those aged 16-19, 43.9 percent for those aged 20-29, and 54.1 percent for those aged 30-39.
Among the older groups, vaccination rates are 57.7 percent for those aged 40-49, 69.1 percent for those aged 50-64, 83.2 percent for residents aged 65-74, and 79.9 percent for Michiganders aged 75 and older.
Last week, Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, MDHHS chief medical executive and chief deputy for health, reiterated her call for all residents age 12 and older to get vaccinated. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently gave full use approval to the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for Americans age 16 and older. This approval also gives way to doctors being allowed to prescribe the vaccine for children under age 12.
“We now have a fully FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine and ACIP has added its unanimous recommendation,” said Khaldun on Wednesday. “For Michiganders who have been waiting for this approval, now is the time to get the safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine and join the more than 4.7 million Michigan residents who are already fully vaccinated. The vaccine is our best defense against the virus and the way we are going to end this pandemic together.”
From January to July 2021, unvaccinated Michiganders accounted for 98 percent of COVID-19 cases, 95 percent of hospitalizations and 96 percent of deaths, according to Khaldun.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer recently issued an executive directive to state departments and agencies to begin preparing the state’s vaccine response to administer booster COVID-19 vaccine doses to Michiganders beginning Sept. 20. Whitmer added that Michigan “has an ample supply of the COVID-19 vaccine to meet the projected demand.”
You can view the directive here:
Click to access ED%202021-5%20Booster%20shots%20%28final%20signed%29.pdf
President Biden announced last month his plans to start delivery of booster shots by Sept. 20 for most Americans who received the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, which includes Pfizer and Moderna, pending CDC and FDA approval. That plan is facing new complications that could delay the availability of third doses for those who received the Moderna vaccine.
Those two agencies, though, are awaiting critical data before signing off on the third doses, with Moderna’s vaccine increasingly seen as unlikely to make the Sept. 20 milestone.
According to one official, Moderna produced inadequate data for the FDA and CDC to recommend the third dose of its vaccine and FDA has requested additional data that is likely to delay those boosters into October. Pfizer, which is further along in the review process, in part because of data collected from the vaccine’s use in Israel, is still expected to be approved for a third dose for all by Sept. 20. A key FDA panel is to review Pfizer’s data on boosters on Sept. 17.
As of Sept. 7, over 39,700 booster doses have been administered statewide. 84 percent of those third doses have been administered to Michiganders age 50 and older. Right now, the only groups eligible for a third dose include immunocompromised Americans such as organ transplant, active cancer, and HIV patients at least six months out from their two-dose series.
Vaccinating children age 12-15 with the Pfizer vaccine and booster doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for immunocompromised individuals remain under Emergency Use Authorization.
-The Associated Press contributed to this report
