The daily number of cases on Saturday is the highest the state has reported since December 7, when the reported number of cases was 9,350, state statistics show.
Just eight weeks ago, state data showed that the number of cases reported daily was only 563 cases.
“I think it was a wake-up call for everyone yesterday when Michigan reported 8,400 new cases, and we are now seeing an increasing number of serious illnesses, ICU hospitalizations, in individuals between the ages of 30 and 50 who have not been vaccinated,” Osterholm said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Osterholm said there has been a wave of cases in the past year between US regions, starting in the Upper Midwest and Northeast, which then diminish and move to the southern Sunbelt states, which then disappear and go back to the original regions. .
Michigan also reported 57 Covid-19 deaths on Saturday, with 51 of the deaths identified during a vital archival review conducted by the state three times a week, the health department said. The state has recorded 9,947 Covid-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Michigan had the second highest number of cases of the variant, after Florida.
“Right now, the regular Covid test we’re doing still just shows Covid / no Covid. But we’re sending a lot of it to the state, and we’re now seeing about 40% of our patients with B.1.1.7,” he told CNN’s Miguel Marquez.