LANSING, MI (WTVB) – As of Tuesday afternoon, the state’s official COVID-19 tracking website reports that 1,791 individuals have tested positive for the acute respiratory illness in Michigan.
24 Michigan residents have died from COVID-19, after state health officials confirmed the first death from the illness March 10. Five of those deaths are in Wayne County alone.
Branch County still has no reported cases of COVID-19, but Branch-Hillsdale-St. Joseph Community Health Agency officials say one man in Hillsdale County has a confirmed case.
C.H.A. Health Officer Rebecca Burns says as of Tuesday morning nine persons from Branch County have been tested. Eight turned out to be negative while one result is still pending. St. Joseph County has had 30 persons tested. There were 21 negative results while nine results are pending. A total of 18 persons have been tested in Hillsdale County. Besides the one positive test, eight tests were negative and nine results are pending.
One of the most recent deaths includes an employee with the Detroit Police Department, but details on the victim were not released.
On Monday Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced a “Stay Home, Stay Safe” executive order.
On Sunday Washtenaw County reported their first death at Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor. There are now three reported deaths in Washtenaw.
The very first victims were reported in the metro Detroit area, but on Saturday officials at Spectrum Health announced their first death at a hospital in Grand Rapids. The victim was a 71-year-old man with underlying health issues.
Late Saturday night officials in Macomb County also confirmed that a 52-year-old man with underlying health conditions passed away at a hospital in Clinton Township on the east side of the state.
In addition, two elderly women from the Detroit-area died from the coronavirus on Saturday.
Three of those deaths include, a 50-year-old Oakland County man who died on Friday, an 81-year-old who died from the coronavirus at Henry Ford Medical System’s Detroit hospital, and a woman in her 50’s who was being treated at McLaren Hospital in Pontiac.
Health officials initially confirmed the first death in Michigan, involving a man in his 50’s with underlying health issues being treated at Beaumont Hospital in Wayne County.
Most of the cases are mainly in the metro Detroit area with the top three counties being Oakland, Wayne, and Macomb.
So far over 40 of Michigan’s 83 counties have reported cases of coronavirus. At last reported, the city of Detroit alone has 563 positive cases.
On Friday, it was first reported 549 confirmed cases of COVID-19, that number rose to 787 on Saturday with more testing being conducted, it topped over 1,000 Sunday, 1,300 Monday, and now just under 1,800 cases Tuesday.
Calhoun County reported their first case Saturday which is now up to four, and Berrien County is now at eight.
The Kalamazoo County Health & Community Services Department is reporting three positive cases for the coronavirus. The three adult cases are unrelated and one is a deputy with the Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Department.
The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Michigan was reported last week on Tuesday, March 10.
In that time span the number of confirmed cases and testing samples being processed has increased dramatically.
Initially only a State Bureau of Laboratories facility in Lansing was processing test samples for the virus, but in the time since Beaumont Health, University of Michigan Medicine, Henry Ford Medical System, and Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids have increased their capability to screen for COVID-19.
Henry Ford Medical System has begun processing its own test results and reports more than two dozen positive cases since advanced screening began at its facilities. Officials with the healthcare provider say their lab has the capacity to run approximately 100 tests per day, with results processed within 24 hours.
Like many states Michigan is facing a critical shortage of available test kits. Criteria for who should be tested and whether to test themselves has been a logistical challenge for both hospitals and local health departments.
During her press conference on Wednesday afternoon Governor Whitmer said that the states medical response is being strained during the outbreak.
“We don’t have enough tests. We don’t have enough resources to process the tests,” said Whitmer.
Michigan’s chief medical executive Jonleigh Khaldun said that in the past week 500 additional test kits have been supplied to healthcare providers, but more work remains to be done to increasing testing.
“We’re still seeing some individuals who have no history of travel and we do not know how they got the disease,” Khaldun said at the state press conference. “This means that there is likely spread in the community and we must do everything we can to prevent further spread.”
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services provides an update of confirmed cases and relevant demographic data for COVID-19 every day at 2:00 p.m.
