Michigan to stop reporting COVID-19 cases & deaths on Sundays, citing 'erratic' data, reduced weekend testing
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (FOX 2) - Michigan will no longer be reporting COVID-19 cases and deaths on Sundays and will instead be including those numbers in reports issued on Mondays.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) issued a notice on Friday that it would make the change in reporting effective Sunday, Sept. 6. Instead of reporting new cases, deaths, and testing on Sunday, Michigan will now add data from Sunday to Monday.
The MDHHS said this decision was made due to weekend data being erratic and generally lower than other days due to reduced testing and lab staffing.
“At this time, reporting on Sunday rather than Monday is not critical to our understanding of the virus,” said MDHHS Director Robert Gordon. “This change will allow staff who have not had a real day off since February to get some relief and allow the department to prioritize more valuable data reporting, including school outbreak information.”
Sunday and Monday data will both be reported on Mondays, including Labor Day. The state says the change will not affect the department’s ability to provide onset date information for COVID-19 cases.
On Monday, Michigan announced 451 new cases and 7 deaths. To date, 6,480 people have died from the virus, there have been 102,468 total confirmed cases, including almost 20,000 active cases this week, and more than 76,000 have recovered from the virus.