Health & Fitness
How MI Is Weathering The Pandemic: See New Weekly Virus Data
The reports, which include key county-level data and federal recommendations, were kept hidden under the Trump administration.
DETROIT — A new batch of data from the White House is giving a fresh look into how Michigan is handling the pandemic, and how the state compares to other states across the country.
Under the previous administration, the White House COVID-19 Team compiled weekly reports tracking pandemic growth in each individual state, but the reports were kept private. On Wednesday, White House COVID-19 Data Director Cyrus Shahpar confirmed over twitter that, going forward, the data would be shared publicly.
First post: We are now sharing previously hidden weekly COVID-19 state profile reports with the public. Thanks to data team and @l_e_whyte @rypan @alexismadrigal @DrTomFrieden @EricTopol @JasonSalemi @PeterJ_Walker @T_Inglesby https://t.co/f4trSyNpBv
— Cyrus Shahpar (@cyrusshahpar46) January 27, 2021
Here's a look at how Michigan fared on its first State Profile Report.
Find out what's happening in Detroitfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Note that, while the report was first released Wednesday, the data below represents cases from the 7-day week ending Sunday, Jan 24.
The data released Wednesday tracks a set of key metrics in Michigan including the rate of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents, test positivity rates and total lab tests. The White House COVID-19 Team's report shows Michigan is performing better than the country at large.
Find out what's happening in Detroitfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Michigan's data shows the state has a rate of 154 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000, which is less than half the nationwide average of 381 cases per 100,000 Americans. It's also down 23 percent from where that metric was the week before.
The death rate showed similar comparisons in Michigan. There were 401 deaths related to the pandemic reported in Michigan last week, a rate of 4 deaths per 100,000 Michiganders. Across America, 21,658 died during the same time, or 6.5 deaths per 100,000 people.
Michigan has seen a dropoff in the number of coronavirus tests being administered. Michigan last week processed 273,753 laboratory tests, down 13 percent from the week before.
A positive metric in Michigan is the number of hospitals with staff shortages, which dropped 5 percent in the last week. The state currently has 16 percent of its hospitals facing staff shortages, whereas the nationwide average is 18 percent.
The report also ranks all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, based on their number of new cases per every 100,000 residents. In that ranking, Michigan comes in 47th, meaning just 5 regions have lower case counts.
All 52 state profile reports can be found here. They will be updated weekly.
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