Michigan Reports Highest Daily Number Of Coronavirus Cases Ever

Today, Michigan has reported its highest number of daily coronavirus cases since the pandemic began.

The record breaking day includes 3,338 new cases and 35 new deaths. While deaths still remain low compared to the numbers in April and May, the cases greatly eclipse the previous record of 2,015 on October 16th.

Michigan has removed almost all of its COVID-19 restrictions since the Michigan Supreme Court overturned Governor Gretchen Whitmer's executive orders, and this was before the most recent surge.  The increase in cases hasn't been directly linked to anything specific, but with almost all of the economy as well as the schools having reopened, it should be expected that cases would have risen.

The good news about the current surge is that hospitalizations have not risen significantly in the past several weeks, but this can change very quickly as hospitalizations typically lag slightly behind positive cases.  Another thing to note about hospitalizations is that despite not currently surgining, they are still about 3 times higher than about a month ago with a little over 1,200 adults hospitalized for COVID-19 as of today.  To put this in context, at the beginning of the pandemic, there were over 1,000 COVID-19 patients in the Henry Ford Hospital Network in Metro Detroit.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services has also reported that as of Monday, October 19th, 120 schools in the state have reported ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks.

With winter coming and holiday gatherings being planned, some people are hoping that the government will take more of a role in stopping the spread by instituting another lockdown or restricting businesses and mandating remote learning for schools.