Coronavirus data reporting is changing in Michigan and across the country.
The conclusion of the nation’s COVID-19 public health emergency Thursday, May 11, came with reductions in required data collection. While the virus is not going anywhere, regular reporting on rates of infections and testing won’t be the same moving forward.
Michigan will no longer report COVID testing data, including how many tests are done and percent positivity, beginning the week of May 15. Health officials noted that data had considerable limitations for some time since the expansion of at-home self-testing, which didn’t require reporting.
The state will continue to track infections using emergency department visits, wastewater surveillance, case and hospitalization rates, and mortality rates beyond the ending of the public health emergency.
Health officials will still track COVID hospitalizations through April 2024 as a means to assess community levels. These numbers will be tracked weekly, rather than daily, moving forward. COVID deaths will continue to be reported using death certificate data. They’ll use a new metric -- the percent of deaths that are COVID-associated -- and report it weekly.
Nationally, the CDC is done reporting COVID-19 Community Levels, which previously offered a three-tiered assessment for every county on a weekly basis by looking at new cases and hospitalizations per capita. Michigan had all 83 counties at low levels last week.
In recent months, there were a few Michigan counties with brief stints above the medium-level threshold. They were mostly in the Upper Peninsula, and those blips were quickly followed by returns to low-level data.
Related: We thought COVID would never end. Then we thought it already did.
Michigan’s COVID reporting pivot comes as the viral situation continues to improve. As of earlier this week, Michigan was averaging 250 reported cases per day, which is the lowest rate in almost two years. Hospitalizations also continue to decline.
As MLive concludes its weekly COVID data updates, here’s a look at the latest Michigan trends.
Michigan is reporting 250 new, confirmed cases per day in the past week
The daily average has been steadily declining for at least two months, and will most likely continue that trajectory without the addition of a new variant given historical trends.
Nine counties reported no new cases last week. They were Alcona, Missaukee, Oscoda, Montmorency, Charlevoix, Keweenaw, Luce, Mackinac and Presque Isle.
The top 10 counties by new cases per 100,000 people were Ontonagon (103), Schoolcraft (50), Benzie (45), Clare (42), Gladwin (39), Crawford (39), Barry (37), Baraga (37), Kalkaska (33), and Luce (33).
The top 10 counties by total new cases without accounting for population were Wayne (376), Oakland (286), Macomb (154), Washtenaw (101), Genesee (77), Kent (71), Ingham (63), Saginaw (40), Eaton (31), and Berrien (31).
Cases are “confirmed” when there’s a positive result from an NAAT/RT-PCR test. Cases are “probable” when there’s a reported antigen (rapid) test or if somebody has symptoms and was exposed to a person with COVID-19.
All graphics in this story are based only on “confirmed” numbers, which differs from the state’s use of “confirmed” plus “probable” data in its reporting.
Michigan has reported more than 2.65 million confirmed COVID cases and at least 450,842 probable cases since the pandemic began.
The chart below shows the seven-day average for new, confirmed COVID cases throughout the pandemic.
(Can’t see the chart? Click here.)
36 counties saw rise in cases in last seven days
Of Michigan’s 83 counties, 36 had an increase in cases this week compared to last week.
See the database below to search/sort case totals by county. The chart also shows the percent change from week to week and the seven-day case average per capita.
(Can’t see the database? Click here.)
Michigan ranks 17th in the U.S. in new cases per capita
Michigan was tied for the 17th-most COVID cases per capita of the 50 U.S. states for the week of April 27 through May 3, per the New York Times.
States with the most cases per capita this week were Indiana, Hawaii, Louisiana, New Mexico, Arizona, and Indiana. States with the fewest reported cases per capita were Pennsylvania, Delaware, Connecticut, West Virginia, and Utah.
COVID case totals don’t tell the whole story. At-home tests are not reported, so those aren’t included in the data. That’s why it’s also key to look at percent positivity of reported tests and data on hospitalizations and deaths.
For COVID hospital admissions, Michigan had the second-most per capita during that time (2.3 per 100,000). For COVID deaths per capita, Michigan was tied for ninth.
Average test positivity is 6.8%
About 6.8% of COVID tests submitted to the state this week were positive, down from 6.9% last week and 8.8% three weeks ago.
Michigan’s rate peaked at 35% in January 2022. It dipped as low as 2% in early March 2022 before climbing again. However, the rise in at-home, self-testing led to rates typically remaining higher due to fewer people reporting negative test results to their local health departments.
The graph below shows the percentage of COVID-19 tests reported that came back positive throughout the pandemic.
(Can’t see the chart? Click here.)
Ontonagon, Baraga, and Benzie counties had the highest percent positivity for Michigan counties last week. Meanwhile, six coiunties reported a rate of 0%.
To see the COVID test positivity rate for your county, see the searchable table below.
Hospitals treating 406 confirmed or suspected adult COVID-19 patients
COVID hospitalizations declined slightly from 414 confirmed or suspected adult cases of COVID-19 last week.
Among the adults with COVID hospitalized on Wednesday, May 10, the state reported that 33 were in intensive care and 12 were on a ventilator. Both were down from recent weeks.
Michigan also had 12 children hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID as of Wednesday.
Michigan is reporting seven new COVID deaths per day in the past week
That average is the same as last week and down slightly from the nine deaths per day reported two weeks ago.
Michigan has had 38,573 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 4,300 probable COVID deaths since the pandemic began. During omicron’s peak last January, Michigan was averaging more than 100 COVID deaths per day.
The chart below shows the seven-day average for COVID deaths throughout the pandemic.
(Can’t see the chart? Click here.)
Vaccinations: 16.9% of residents have received omicron-specific booster
About 64% of Michigan residents have gotten at least one COVID shot, 59.6% have received the full original regimen and 39`% have been boosted.
The omicron-specific COVID-19 booster is available in Michigan from both Pfizer and Moderna. About 16.9% of residents have received the bivalent booster so far, or about 1.68 million residents.
Below is a breakdown by age group of Michiganders who’ve gotten at least one shot (initiated), those who have two shots (completed) and those who are considered “up to date” on COVID vaccines, as of Wednesday, April 26. The state didn’t update its vaccination data this week due to “a technical issue.”
- 75 and older: 87.3% initiated; 82.8% completed, 36.9% up to date
- 65 to 74: 90.5% initiated; 86.8% completed, 41.8% up to date
- 50 to 64: 77% initiated; 73% completed, 22.6% up to date
- 40 to 49: 67.9% initiated; 63.3% completed, 13.2% up to date
- 30 to 39: 66.4% initiated; 60.8% completed, 10.9% up to date
- 20 to 29: 56.4% initiated; 50.6% completed, 6.6% up to date
- 16 to 19: 57.4% initiated; 52.5% completed, 6.6% up to date
- 12 to 15: 50.4% initiated; 46.8% completed, 8.0% up to date
- 5 to 11: 31.3% initiated; 28.5% completed, 5.6% up to date
- Younger than 5: 10.2% initiated, 6.4% completed, 4.4% up to date
For more statewide data, visit MLive’s coronavirus data page.
To find a testing site near you, check out the state’s online test find send an email to COVID19@michigan.gov, or call 888-535-6136 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays.
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