Michigan Has Over 24K Coronavirus Cases, Almost 1,500 Deaths

There have been 1,487 deaths due to COVID-19 in Michigan as of Sunday. There were 1,392 deaths as of Saturday, an increase of 95 deaths.

There are now 24,638 positive cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by a new coronavirus, although state officials believe the actual number of cases is much higher.*

The drop in numbers caused the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to note that officials “cannot say if this represents a true decline in COVID-19 cases and deaths in our state.” In the past, there have been decreases in reported tests on Sundays.

Reported case counts may reflect a reduction in the amount of laboratory testing performed over the weekend and Easter holiday, DHHS notes. Single-day fluctuations in the number of confirmed cases may not be significant, as a number of external factors can affect data reporting.

As of Friday, 433 people have recovered from COVID-19, according to the state.

The new state-reported numbers only recently began incorporating data from other commercial and private labs and hospitals around Michigan, which caused an apparent spike in numbers that speaks more to the number of cases just now being publicly reported.

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

Johns Hopkins University reports that there are more than 1.8 million confirmed cases worldwide and more than 113,000 deaths. In the United States, there are more than 542,000 confirmed cases and almost 22,000 deaths.

This story was originally published by the Michigan Advance. For more stories from the Michigan Advance, visit MichiganAdvance.com.