Michigan reports 901 new cases of COVID-19 and 15 deaths on Saturday, 11 from vital records review

On Saturday, September 26, 2020, the state of Michigan announced 901 new cases of COVID-19 and 15 more deaths linked to the virus, 11 of which came from a review of vital records.

Michigan is reporting a total of 121,427 total confirmed cases and 6,723 deaths that are linked to the virus since the outbreak started in March.

You can see recent daily case numbers and death updates below. 

Tracking Michigan's coronavirus outbreaks, cases in schools and universities

Meanwhile, Michigan's chief medical executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun spoke at the governor's most recent news conference last week and gave context to the state of the pandemic in Michigan right now. 

CASES PER MILLION PEOPLE PER DAY

Overall, Michigan is seeing a case rate of 57 cases per million people per day, which is a slight increase from last week's case rate of 55 cases per million people per day.

The Detroit, Saginaw and Traverse City regions all have declining case rates. Detroit and Saginaw have more than 40 cases per million people per day, and while the case rate here is declining the positivity rate is increasing.

The Traverse City region has 31 cases per million people per day and the test positivity is below 3%, which can indicate community spread isn't happening. 

The other five regions in the state have increasing case rates. 

The Kalamazoo and Jackson regions remain at over 40 cases per million people per day. The Grand Rapids, Lansing and Upper Peninsula areas have increased to more than 70 cases per million people per day. These increases are, in large part, because of outbreaks associated with colleges and universities

However, our deaths remain steady and we're seeing an average of less than 10 per day.

Information from Gov. Whitmer's 9/16 news conference

TESTING AND PERCENT POSITIVE

Testing continues to look good. Dr. Khaldun said Michigan continues to test more than 30,000 people per day, which is more than 2% of our state's population every week. 

The overall percent positive rate in Michigan has increased from 3.7% from 3.2% the week prior. 

The goal is to get the percent positive below 3%, which would indicate community spread is not happening. 

OUTBREAKS

On Monday, Sept. 14, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services started tracking outbreaks in schools across the entire state.

Using data from 45 health departments, the updates will be released every Monday at 3 p.m. and will include K-12, college and universities, number of cases, and if the cases involved staff, students, or both. It does not include cases where the virus was contracted from outside of the school.

You can read about the latest outbreak data in schools here

CONTACT TRACING

Authorities are still urging everyone to answer their phones if you get a call from the health department. Text messages are also now being sent in advance of the incoming call. 

Talking with the health department helps track where others may have been exposed to the virus.

Meanwhile, everyone is also still reminded to keep doing the basics to stay healthy - wear a mask, wash your hands and keep your distance from other people. 

PREVIOUS DAILY COVID-19 CASE COUNTS AND DEATHS

  • Friday, September 25 - 929 cases, 8 deaths
  • Thursday, September 24 - 982 cases, 8 deaths (includes 6 deaths identified during a Vital Records review)
  • Wednesday, September 23 - 705 cases, 12 deaths
  • Tuesday, September 22 - 504 cases, 15 deaths (includes 3 deaths identified during a Vital Records review)
  • Monday, September 21 - 1,536 cases, 12 deaths announced in the past two days as the state no longer reports cases on Sundays
  • Saturday, September 19 - 483 cases, 15 deaths (includes 12 deaths identified during a Vital Records review)
  • Friday, September 18 - 695 cases, 6 deaths 
  • Thursday, September 17 - 829 cases, 9 deaths (including 5 from vital review)
  • Wednesday, September 16 - 680 cases, 11 deaths (including 5 from vital records review)
  • Tuesday, September 15 - 571 cases, 11 deaths (including 5 from vital records review)
  • Monday, September 14 - 1,088 cases, 10 deaths announced in the past two days as the state no longer reports cases on Sundays
  • Saturday, September 12 - 692 cases, 13 deaths (all identified during a vital records review)
  • Friday, September 11 - 1,313 cases, 9 deaths
  • Thursday, September 10 - 924 cases, 17 deaths (9 identified during a vital records review)
  • Wednesday, September 9 - 783 cases 13 additional deaths. 
  • Tuesday, September 8 - 441, cases, 1 death
  • Monday, September 7 - 1,156 cases, four deaths announced in the past two days as the state has stopped reporting cases on Sunday
  • Saturday, September 5 - 838 cases, 8 new deaths (3 identified during a vital records review)
  • Friday, September 4 - 982, 7 deaths 
  • Thursday, September 3 - 685 cases, 10 deaths (9 identified during a routine records review)
  • Wednesday, September 2 - 524 cases, 14 deaths
  • Tuesday, September 1 - 718 cases, 15 deaths (8 were part of a vital records review,)
  • Monday, August 31 - 451 cases, 7 deaths
  • Sunday, August 30 - 539 cases, 6 deaths
  • Saturday, August 29 - 799 cases, 21 deaths (7 identified during a vital records review)
  • Friday, August 28 - 741 cases, 6 new deaths; total cases surpassed 100,000
  • Thursday, August 27 - 758 cases, 16 deaths (15 from vital records review)
  • Wednesday, August 26 - 761 cases, 7 deaths
  • Tuesday, August 25 - 779 cases, 20 deaths (6 from vital records review) 
  • Monday, August 24 - 868 cases, 4 deaths
  • Sunday, August 23 - 768 cases, 4 deaths
  • Saturday, August 22 - 953 cases, 11 deaths (8 from vital records review)
  • Friday, August 21 - 374 cases, 10 deaths (cases announced three hours later than normal, is less than expected due to a recent issue with the reporting of electronic lab results)
  • Thursday, August 20 - 419 cases, 19 deaths (11 from vital records review)
  • Wednesday, August 19 - 616 cases and 9 deaths