Cases soar past 6,000 on Wednesday

Nearly half in southeast Michigan

New coronavirus cases in Michigan soared past 6,000 Wednesday, the highest total since Dec. 2, with nearly half in southeast Michigan.

The state health department announced 6.311 new confirmed cases and 10 deaths, bringing the state’s total to 672,259 cases and 16.092 deaths since the pandemic began more than a year ago.

Of the new daily cases, 46.8% were in the counties of Oakland, Wayne and Macomb, plus Detroit, but other areas around the state also showed higher numbers.

There were 966 new cases in Macomb County, 833 cases in Oakland County, 787 cases in Wayne County, and 368 cases and one death in Detroit.

Other counties with significant numbers were Kent County with 398 cases, Genesee County with 242 cases, St. Clair County with 205 cases, 169 cases in Ottawa County, 141 cases in Saginaw County, 135 cases in Ingham County, and 124 cases in Jackson County.

In mid-Michigan, there were 16 cases in Clare County, eight cases in Gratiot County, and 31 cases in Isabella County.

Three of Michigan’s 83 counties reported no new cases or deaths.

Besides Detroit, there were two deaths in Lapeer County and one each in Alpena, Bay, Berrien, Eaton, Kalkaska, Lenawee, and Sanilac counties.

As spring unfolds, the state is in a race to vaccinate as many people as possible as case counts rise.

So far, 2,733,713 people have been vaccinated of the 8,096,917 estimated to be age 16 and older, or 33.8%.

The vaccination percentages are 36.7% in Oakland County, 36.09% in Wayne County, 29.87% in Macomb County, and 19.03% in Detroit.