State reports 4,670 new cases on Saturday

Michigan now has had more than 650,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the arrival of the pandemic.

The state reported 4,670 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, also adding 22 to the confirmed death toll, which reached 16,026.

Counting the probable cases, the state has had 723,700 cases and 17,047 deaths.

Worldwide, nearly 126.5 cases have been reported and more than 2.77 million people have died, according to Johns Hopkins University data. In the U.S., 30.2 million cases have been reported with nearly 549,000 killed. Michigan ranks 13th in the nation in total caseload.

With Saturday’s update, this is the fourth consecutive day above 4,000 new cases in a day.

Earlier in the month, the state had reported some days less than 1,000 new cases, but by the second week of the month the number of new cases topped 2,000.

On Saturday, more than 1,400 of the new cases — nearly 31 percent — came from Oakland and Macomb counties.

Macomb County added 725 new cases and reported five more deaths, reaching 63,587 confirmed cases and 1,914 deaths.

Oakland County added 720 cases to reach 72,804 cases with 1,941 deaths.

Wayne County saw 547 cases added on Saturday, totaling 72,990 cases. Three more deaths were reported there.

Detroit reached 32,998 cases, adding 257 cases.

The three counties and Detroit combined for 2,249 new cases, or more than 48 percent of the day’s total.

Statewide, nine other counties reported more than 100 new cases, including Genesee (207), Ingham (104), Jackson (106), Kalamazoo (129), Kent (263), Livington (101), Ottawa (103), St. Clair (141), and Washtenaw (126).

In mid-Michigan, Isabella County added 18 cases to hit 3,798, Gratiot County was up by eight cases to reach 2,535, and Clare jumped by nine cases to land at 1,462. No new deaths were reported in the three counties.

The prior three days Wednesday through Friday saw more than 140,000 diagnostic tests given.

On Friday, the positivity rate was 11.8 percent, up from 10.9 percent the prior day.

Three weeks ago, the positivity rate in Michigan had hovered about the 5 percent mark. It passed 10 percent on March 21 and has stayed above the mark.

As the coronavirus seemingly spreads at a faster rate in Michigan, vaccinations continued to rise. As of March 25, 2.5 million vaccines had been given.