Michigan Has One Of The Best Daily Coronavirus Testing

When the pandemic first hit America, southeast Michigan was one of the hotspots and the state as a whole had one of highest mortality rates in the country. Since then, things have changed and we've become one of the states with the best responses to the virus.

Michigan currently ranks 6th in total COVID-19 tests given to residents with over 3.6 million, according to data from Worldometers.info. And earlier in the month, Michigan ranked 5th in the nation in terms of the daily testing being done.

Michigan Department Health and Human Services (MDHHS) Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, stated in a press conference in early September that Michigan was testing a little over 2% of its population each week. The testing that is currently being conducted by the state is meeting the federal target for daily tests, making Michigan one of only 13 states who are hitting the goal.

The nationwide goal of 1 million tests per week is thought to be a good baseline standard for mitigating the spread of the virus. Michigan's current rate of 286 daily tests per 100,000 people is 146% of the national testing goal. And according to John Hopkins University, Michigan's testing rate is continuing to increase.

The majority of the testing done in Michigan is diagnostic testing (directly testing for current infection in individuals), but about 8.5% of the testing has been serological testing (testing for antibodies in individuals to conclude if they have had and recovered from COVID-19).

As of September 20, 2020, Michigan has had over 128,000 COVID-19 cases and 6,969 deaths and currently there are 30,902 active cases in the state.