West Michigan saw the highest number of cases in July because metro Detroit had a break. And now some of the closest cases are in the remote western Upper Peninsula, in Menominee County.
Although small in population, Menominee averages six new cases per day, or 26 for every 100,000 people, averaging the highest current rate in the state. In comparison, Macomb County, which had the most cases on Wednesday (138), has a daily average of 13.5 cases per 100,000 people.
Who gets the virus
Across Michigan, people of color and elderly residents are suffering from the virus.
African Americans, who make up 14 percent of the state’s population, make up nearly 40 percent of the deaths and have a death rate – deaths per 1 million – that is 1,650 nearly four times higher than for white residents (423 per million ). (Data for other groups were not available.)
The age gap revealed how deadly COVID-19 remains for the elderly: 16 percent of all coronavirus cases hit those 70 or older, but that age group accounts for 70 percent of all deaths.
And the toll was particularly heavy in nursing homes, where a third of all deaths, just over 2,100, have occurred among residents, and 21 nursing home staff have died.
Younger residents have recently contracted the virus. Until June 5, about 4 percent of all infections were among those under 20 years old.
From then until this week, they have contracted more than 17 percent of new infections and are the fastest-growing age group to adopt coronavirus in the state, although they are the least likely to have serious complications.
Cases and deaths
By almost every measure, Michigan has recovered from a terrible – and deadly – beginning of the pandemic.
If probable cases are added to confirmed, Michigan has nearly 6,700 deaths, or 67 for every 100,000 people, a rate that is 10th highest in the nation. But it had been as high as fourth until waves of the virus swept through the south and southwest.
Michigan, which ranks 10th among states in the total population, ranks 18th in total coronavirus cases. It has been passed down by several states, including Ohio, which for many weeks had far fewer cases than Michigan.
According to population, Michigan now ranks 37th in terms of cases per 100,000 people.
The test
Once upon a time, Michigan struggled to test enough people and the few available tests were limited to those with symptoms and who had been in contact with a known coronavirus case.
As a result, nearly 40 percent of the tests were positive in the early weeks of the pandemic. A steady increase in test capacity now has the state as many as 400 people per day per 100,000 tests – far more than the one-time goal of 150 tests.
This is important, experts say, because it allows public health officials to quickly identify cases and recommend quarantine for the infected. That works even better, they say, if the positive test rate is below 5 percent or, the Harvard Global Health Initiative suggests, even 3 percent.
By those standards, Michigan did well: Last week, 3.1 percent of the tests were positive and on Wednesday, just 2.4 percent of more than 41,000 tests were positive.
