Advance Notice: Briefs

More than 30K Michiganders have now died from COVID-19

By: Anna Gustafson - February 2, 2022 3:58 pm

A COVID-19 memorial in Detroit’s Rosedale Park community | Ken Coleman photo

Michigan hit a grim milestone Wednesday, with the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) reporting that the state has surpassed 30,000 COVID-19 deaths.

The DHHS said Wednesday that 30,170 Michiganders have died from the virus, and a total of 1,999,416 Michiganders have tested positive for COVID-19. Those numbers represent an additional 327 deaths and 18,803 cases since Monday.

The new numbers combine Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s recorded cases and deaths, with an average of 9,402 new confirmed cases per day. DHHS publishes COVID-19 data three times weekly on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

The deaths announced include 239 deaths identified during a vital records review. DHHS conducts this review process two times per week.

DHHS also reports that an additional 283,594 Michiganders have been identified as “probable” cases for COVID-19, as well as 2,468 probable deaths. The department began tracking probable cases on April 5, 2020.

Combining the state’s confirmed positive cases with probable cases brings the total up to 2,283,010 statewide cases and 32,638 deaths.

The virus has been detected in all of Michigan’s 83 counties. The state’s COVID-19 fatality rate is currently at 1.5%.

As of Wednesday, the state reports a total of 3,202 COVID-19 hospitalizations across Michigan hospitals, with 556 of those being adults in the intensive care unit. There are 84 children hospitalized with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19. There is an average hospital bed occupancy of 79%.

The first two cases of COVID-19 were reported in the state on March 10, 2020. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency that day.

Johns Hopkins University reports that there are about 383.7 million confirmed cases worldwide and 5.6 million deaths. The United States makes up a significant portion of those, as 75.4 million confirmed cases and 892,460 deaths have been recorded nationally.

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Anna Gustafson

Anna Gustafson is the assistant editor at Michigan Advance, where her beats include economic justice, health care and immigration. Previously the founder of the Muskegon Times and the editor at Rapid Growth Media in Grand Rapids, Anna has worked as an editor and reporter for news outlets across the country. She began her journalism career reporting on state politics in Wisconsin and has gone on to cover government, racial justice and immigration reform in New York City, education in Connecticut, the environment in Wyoming, and more. Previously, Anna lived in Argentina and Morocco, and, when she’s not working, she’s often trying to perfect the empanada and couscous recipes she fell in love with in these countries. You’ll likely also find her working on her century-old home in downtown Lansing, writing that ever-elusive novel and hiking throughout Michigan.