CDC: All 83 Michigan Counties Have ‘High' Or ‘Substantial' Community COVID-19 Spread

Michigan Advance

August 29, 2021

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) reported Friday that a total of 941,678 Michiganders have tested positive for COVID-19 and 20,230 have died from the virus — an additional 3,958 cases and 69 deaths since Wednesday.

The new numbers combine Thursday’s and Friday’s recorded cases and deaths, with an average of 1,979 new confirmed cases per day. DHHS now publishes COVID-19 data three times weekly on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

The state notes that 42 of the deaths announced come from the most recent review of vital records and testing data. This means that those individuals had already died, but are just now being flagged by the state as official COVID-19 deaths. The DHHS conducts this review process two times per week.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), all of Michigan’s 83 counties are now experiencing either high or substantial community spread. Seventy-two counties in both peninsulas are ranked “high,” while 11 are ranked “substantial.”

The eleven counties considered to have “substantial” COVID-19 transmission rates are Roscommon, Marquette, Gogebic, Missaukee, Kalkaska, Crawford, Antrim, Presque Isle, Sanilac, Ingham and Wexford counties.

DHHS also reports that an additional 113,031 Michiganders have been identified as “probable” cases for COVID-19, as well as 1,290 probable deaths. The department began tracking probable cases on April 5, 2020.

Combining the state’s confirmed positive cases with probable cases brings the total up to 1,054,709 statewide cases and 21,520 deaths.

The virus has been detected in all of Michigan’s 83 counties. The state’s COVID-19 fatality rate is currently at 2.1%.

As of Friday, 878,031 people have recovered from COVID-19, according to the state.

The first two cases of COVID-19 were reported in the state on March 10, 2020. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency that day.

Johns Hopkins University reports that there are about 215 million confirmed cases worldwide and 4.5 million deaths. The United States makes up a significant portion of those, as more than 38.4 million confirmed cases and 633,991 deaths have been recorded nationally.

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