Report: Ten COVID deaths reported over holiday week

Ten new COVID-19 deaths were reported across Isabella, Gratiot and Clare counties during the holiday week. Both Isabella and Gratiot counties hit the 150-death mark.

Four of the deaths were reported each in Isabella and Clare counties, while the other two were reported in Gratiot County.

A total of 127 Clare County residents have died from the disease, according to the state’s COVID-19 dashboard. They are among the 26,650 Michiganders reported by the state to have died from the disease as of Monday.

Those deaths didn’t necessarily take place last week. During Monday’s update of COVID-19 numbers, 158 of the 274 deaths reported by the MDHHS were discovered during a review of death certificates filed over the last 30 days.

When the state reviews death certificates filed by county clerks, it matches those with COVID-19 listed as the cause of death against the state’s disease surveillance database. Those cases listed as

deaths on death certificates that aren’t in the state’s disease surveillance database are added as deaths during the state’s threetimes-a-week numbers updates and marked as discovered during a review of death certificates.

Over the month of December, 33 people from the county have reportedly died. Isabella County

had the most with 13, 10 deaths have been reported so far in Gratiot and Clare counties.

That number could rise if additional deaths are uncovered during death certificate reviews.

Across Michigan, 1,963 COVID-19 deaths have been reported so far during December for a total so far of 26,650.