COVID-19 situation worsens in Isabella

Gratiot, Clare counties see case improvement

Just one new case of COVID-19 was reported over the weekend in both Gratiot and Clare counties, where key metrics continue to point to an improving situation. Those same metrics suggest mild spread of the disease in Isabella County.

In addition to the single case, a single death was reported in Gratiot County. No information about who died was available. Mid-michigan District Health Department, which was providing that information, stopped before Christmas.

It brings the county’s cumulative total number of cases to 2,429, with 95 deaths.

The county remains the lowest of Isabella, Gratiot and Clare counties in key metrics indicating spread of COVID-19. Its seven-day

rolling average number of new cases per 100,000 people is 3.9, among the lowest in Michigan.

On a county-level dashboard hosted by Brown University School of Public Health, the county remains in the second-lowest category for cases weighted for population. It is coded yellow on an accompanying map.

That dashboard combines confirmed and probable cases. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services’s dashboard is largely based on confirmed cases and deaths, with information about probable cases and deaths available.

Gratiot’s seven-day rolling average for test positivity is 1.15 percent. That is the percentage of diagnostic tests that produce a positive result. Lower is considered better. Less than 2 percent is considered low risk.

Isabella County’s sevenday rolling average for test positivity is now the highest of Isabella, Gratiot and Clare counties at 3.79. Last week, its rolling average was less than 3 percent.

Increasing test positivity rates are believed to indicate that the disease is spreading, although 3.79 is not considered very high.

The county did slip out of the second-lowest category on the county-level dashboard and into the secondhighest with a seven-day rolling average of new cases weighted for population of 10.4. The second-highest category is counties with averages weighted for population of between 10 and 25.

An additional 17 cases were reported in Isabella County on Monday, increasing its cumulative total to 3,512. Those cases are spread out over three days for a daily average of just less than six.

Central Michigan University’s COVID dashboard reported seven new cases there on Saturday.

Seventy people in Isabella County have died from COVID-19, and 68 have died in Clare County. No new deaths were reported in either county over the weekend.

Clare County’s sole case brings its cumulative total to 1,374. It also has a 3.39 rolling seven-day average of test positivity and a 11.1 new cases weighted for age. Like Isabella County, it is in the second-highest category for current risk.

Elsewhere in mid-michigan, one new death was reported, with new and cumulative cases and deaths as follows:

• In Gladwin County, one additional case was reported for a cumulative total of 1,231, with 39 deaths;

• In Mecosta County, an additional 14 cases were reported for a cumulative total of 1,870, with 19 deaths;

• In Midland County, one more death was reported for a total of 61, and an additional two cases were reported for a cumulative total of 4,306; and,

• In Montcalm County, an additional 13 cases were reported for a cumulative total of 3,199, with 82 deaths.

Statewide, another 8 deaths were reported over the weekend for a total of 15,158 and another 1,265 cases were reported for a cumulative total of 575,489.