State reports 8 COVID deaths, 1,265 new cases

Confirmed cases and deaths from the virus have been trending lower since the start of the new year.

Daily confirmed deaths from the coronavirus in Michigan dropped to eight for Saturday and Sunday combined. That’s a slight drop from a week ago when there were 11 deaths on the weekend.

The state health department reported 1,265 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 for Saturday and Sunday. Along with the eight deaths, that brings the total to 575,489 cases and 15,158 deaths since last March when the pandemic started.

Monday’s daily case count represents new referrals of confirmed cases to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services since Saturday. Over the two days, Sunday and Monday, the average number of new confirmed cases is 632 per day.

Confirmed cases and deaths from the virus have been trending lower since the start of the new year.

Since the pandemic began 10,500,474 tests have been given across the state.

The percent positivity rate remains below 4% at 3.52%, although it is nearly double the rate of 1.90% on June 14. The rate has been declining since hitting a high of 15.99% on Dec. 2.

The state has administered 1,634,609 vaccine doses of the 2,044,625 that have been distributed.

To date, doses administered include 203,852 in Oakland County, 113,330 in Macomb County, 152,503 in Wayne County and 41,738 in Detroit.

The state’s goal is to vaccinate at least 50,000 people per day and 70% of the population age 16 and older as quickly as possible.