First death reported in Isabella County
A man in his 80s with underlying health conditions died of COVID-19, health officials announced Sunday morning.
Central Michigan District Health Department announced the death in a Sunday morning press release, and said that he was admitted to McLaren-Central Michigan with severe symptoms on March 21.
The man, whose identity hasn’t been released, was in his 80s and had underlying health issues, said Rachel Blizzard, McLaren-Central Michigan’s marketing and fund director.
“We extend our sympathy to the patient’s family, and encourage everyone to adhere to CDC guidelines and state-issued mandates to help slow the spread of his highly contagious disease,” said a statement released on behalf of McLaren-Central Michigan. CMDHD released a similar statement at the time of their announcement.
He is the second midMichigan person to have died from COVID-19 in the last week. On Thursday, a Mecosta County man in his 80s died of the disease at Spectrum Hospital in Big Rapids. Later on, it was confirmed that he was related to an employee of Chippewa Hills Public Schools.
It was Mecosta County’s first confirmed case of COVID-19.
Isabella County has had four confirmed cases of the disease as of Sunday morning, a figure that hadn’t changed since Friday. That number might include a CMU student who was on campus Thursday and who tested positive for the disease.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced an additional 993 positive cases of the disease on Saturday, and another 19 deaths. Cumulatively, 5,486 positive cases have been identified statewide with 132 deaths.
That makes the fatality rate in Michigan 2.4 percent. The average age of people who die is 69 years old, according to MDHHS statistics. Men make up 68 percent of the fatalities; women make up 31 percent. One percent are of unknown gender.
Twenty percent of the cases have been detected in people aged 50-59, people 60 to 69 years old account for 19 percent of cases, people 40-49 years old are 17 percent of positive cases.
As of 3 p.m. Saturday, 15,828 samples had been tested for the virus. Hospitals tested 10,060, public health agencies tested 3,762 and commercial labs tested 1,460. Of those, 11,893 were negative and 3,720 were positive.