BRANCH COUNTY, MI (WTVB) – Statistics from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services show how bad the spread of COVID-19 has been in Branch County over the last couple of weeks.
Branch County is one of the worst hot spots in the state for the spread of the virus along with the Grand Rapids and Saginaw-Bay City areas and the western Upper Peninsula.
The seven day breakdown of positive tests shows Branch County at 19-point-nine percent which just below the state’s highest metric of Level E.
There were 2,270 tests conducted in Branch County between November 10 and 17 with 451 of them coming back positive.
Branch County is also third among 83 Michigan counties in the category of average number of new cases per one million residents. The county showed a 77 percent increase during the week of November 11 through 17 compared to the previous week.
There are no signs the recent outbreak of COVID-19 cases in Branch County is letting up. The Branch-Hillsdale-St. Joseph Community Health Agency reported 75 new cases on Tuesday. That brought the total number of new cases in the last four days up to 235. There have been 1,558 cases reported in Branch County since the pandemic began last March.
The Branch County death toll is currently at 20 which includes 15 since October 1 but with so many new cases reported in recent weeks, the number of deaths is expected to go even higher.



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