Update: Numbers up 73 in 20 days

Experts warned for months that the start of flu season could see an uptick in COVID-19 cases as cool weather pushed people indoors to where the virus spreads most easily.

In Clare County, that’s meant a 57 increase in cases in the 20 days so far in October, and a doubling of deaths.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the county hit 200 cumulative confirmed cases of COVID-19, increasing by another four. Eight people have died, half of them also since Oct. 1. Two of those October deaths involved elderlymen who resided at North Woods Nursing Center, 2532 W. Cadillac Dr., in Farwell.

Before that, it’d been since Aug. 29 since the county had experienced its third death. The county’s second death was inmay, the first on April 6.

Clare County is one of five counties coded red on the Harvard Global Health Initiative’s COVID-19 dashboard as having the most serious levels of spread. Sixteen Michigan counties are

red, including most counties of the Upper Peninsula. Just five in the Lower Peninsula are coded red, and Clare is the only one north of the southern two tiers of counties.

There is nothing in the data to suggest that the increase in cases is at this time slowing.

Five new cases were announced in Isabella County on Tuesday, bringing its cumulative total number of confirmed cases to 829, with 15 deaths.

Cases in Isabella County have increased in two spurts since students returned to Central Michigan University’s campus. The first was rapid growth shortly in the three weeks after students returned, followed by much slower growth during most of September, following by another period of growth this month.

The growth in cases is not just on campus, too. At the Tuesday afternoon work session of the Isabella County Commission, Margaret Mcavoy, county administrator, told commissioners that three county employees have tested positive for thedisease andthat one county office is closed after an employee tested positive. A fourth employee

who had close contact with a Covid-positive person is out pending results of a test.

Isabella County is coded orange on the HGHI dashboard.

Cases in Gratiot County increased steadily throughout the summer, including after the school year started. It has accelerated in October, although not in the dramatic way cases have increased in Clare County.

On Oct. 1, the county’s cumulative confirmed cases stood at 279. On Tuesday, they increased eight to 356, with 16 deaths. Gratiot is also coded orange on the HGHI dashboard.

Elsewhere, 12 cases

were reported in Mecosta County for a cumulative total of 385, with four deaths; three additional cases were reported in Montcalm County for a cumulative total of 479, with eight deaths; and six cases were reported in Midland County for a total of 706, with 13 deaths. No additional new cases were reported in Gladwin County, with a total of 141 cases, and two deaths.

Across Michigan, 1,586 new cases were announced for a cumulative total of 149,392, and 22 new deaths were reported for a total of 149,392. One of those deaths was based on a review of death records.