2020 was Michigan's deadliest year as pandemic pushes deaths up 18%

LANSING, Mich. - The coronavirus made 2020 Michigan's deadliest year, driving a 17.9% increase in deaths over 2019, according to preliminary data.

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

It was the largest annual percentage jump on record, surpassing a 15.6% increase in 1918 -- when the flu pandemic struck.

More than 115,300 people died in Michigan last year, up from about 97,800 the year before, according to an Associated Press analysis of provisional data kept by the state's vital records division. COVID-19 has been linked to nearly 16,700 deaths since February 2020. The toll was highest in April and then December.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will deliver a statewide address Wednesday afternoon, marking the one-year anniversary since Michigan's first confirmed cases were announced and she declared an emergency. She has asked residents to torn on their porch lights between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. to remember those who have died.

Vaccines offer hope that the pandemic will finally draw to an end. More than 1.7 million people are fully or partially vaccinated in Michigan, 21.2% of the population age 16 and up.