Five new fatalities reported in 3-day count

Five more COVID-19 deaths were reported Monday involving residents of Isabella, Gratiot and Clare counties. Three of them involved Gratiot County residents.

The deaths bring Gratiot County’s total number of deaths to 148, the highest of the three counties. A total of 146 Isabella County residents have died from the disease, as have 123 Clare County residents.

Those increases reflected deaths reported across the weekend, and may not involve deaths discovered during a review of death certificates by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

Of the 160 deaths reported Monday by the MDHHS, 63 were discovered during a review of death certificates from the last 30 days.

No information was immediately available on the people who died from Central Michigan District Health Department,

which serves Isabella and Clare counties. Mid-michigan District Health Department, which services Gratiot County, hasn’t released information about deaths since before Christmas 2020.

A total of 38 residents of all three counties have died from the disease since Nov. 20, 13 each in Isabella and Gratiot counties and 12 in Clare County.

Confirmed cases of the disease increased by 268 over the weekend, too.

Gratiot County had the most new confirmed cases of COVID-19 at 170, bringing the county’s cumulative total to 5,604. In Isabella County, an additional 63 new confirmed cases were reported for a cumulative total of 9,349; and in Clare County, an additional 35 new confirmed cases were reported for a cumulative total of 4,313.