Daily cases top 5,000 again

Total deaths now over 16,000

New coronavirus cases in Michigan topped 5,000 for the second day in a row Friday with large surges in southeast Michigan.

Detroit plus Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties accounted for 46% of 5,030 new cases announced by the state health department. The southeast Michigan region had 13 of the 20 new deaths, or 65%.

The state hit a new and dubious milestone Friday with the 20 deaths pushing the state total to 16,004. In all, there has been 647,899 confirmed cases of the virus since the pandemic began more than a year ago.

The surge in new cases in southeast Michigan was fairly broad. There were 775 cases and four deaths in Macomb County, 654 cases and three deaths in Oakland County, 640 cases and two deaths in Wayne County, and 265 cases and four deaths in Detroit.

There were smaller surges in other parts of the state: 298 cases and one death in Kent County, 195 cases in Genesee County, 168 cases and one death in St. Clair County, 167 cases in Ingham County, 112 cases in Kalamazoo County, and 84 cases and one death in Jackson County.

In mid-Michigan, there were seven cases in Clare County, five cases in Gratiot County, and 17 cases in Isabella County.

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

On the plus side, the state’s effort to vaccinate 70% of the population age 16 and older against the virus hit 31%. In all, 2,507,267 people have received one or both shots of the vaccine, an increase of 52,853 over the day before.