Nearly 7K new cases reported on Saturday

Michigan reported nearly 7,000 new cases due to coronavirus on Saturday after a week of high case counts reaching about 8,000 per day this week, according to the state’s website.

The 6,892 new cases and 74 new deaths brought Michigan to 738,023 cases and 16,500 new deaths in total.

At least 57 of the 74 new confirmed deaths on Saturday were identified during a vital records review, which are conducted regularly by the state.

These counts exclude probable cases and deaths linked to COVID-19 and include only confirmed cases and deaths.

Health officials have also

been tracking results of statewide testing. So far, 11,894,325 diagnostic tests have been conducted.

As of Friday, a total of 587,283 Michiganders have recovered from COVID-19 (30 days out from onset of illness), a total which is updated by the state every Saturday.

The number of cases have been spiking higher in more populated areas of the state, such as Southeast Michigan, even as more and more people acquire vaccines against the deadly virus.

According to Michigan’s website, at least 39.7 percent of the state’s population had been vaccinated as of Saturday, or 3,212,019 residents.

Macomb County had 260,399 residents vaccinated, Oakland had 457,024 and Wayne had 361,864.

There were also 5,132,443 vaccine doses administered, in total, in the state as of Thursday.

Pfizer vaccines make up 2,702,432 of that total, Moderna vaccines account for 2,270,711 and Johnson and Johnson vaccines are about 159,300.

In Oakland County, 712,935 vaccine doses have been administered, in Macomb County, 415,723 and in Wayne County, 570,544.

The state recently added a coronavirus vaccine section to its webpage, explaining the coronavirus vaccine and displaying a dashboard to give an overview on vaccine distribution in Michigan.

For several days now, Michigan has been in the national spotlight, having the highest rate of new infections in the country.

While the governor is pushing for faster vaccinations, noting more than 5 million have been given, people are testing positive for the virus at a faster rate.

Since the arrival of April, the positivity rate has been above 15 percent for all but one day, dipping to 14.9 percent on Wednesday.

The positivity rate — percentage of all tests coming back positive for COVID-19 — has exceeded 17 percent five times, topping 17.5 percent on Thursday.

For the first eight days of March, the positivity rate was between 3 and 6 percent. For the last week of March, it was between 10 and 15 percent.

According to Johns Hopkins University, worldwide on Saturday, the number of global cases reached over 134.7 million with deaths at over 2.9 million.