Governor Whitmer yesterday signed legislation implementing COVID-19 financial relief, but she struck a number of items using her line item veto authority. The most significant cut was $220 million that was to go to the state unemployment compensation fund. That action has created controversy about whether the extension of benefits from 20 to 26 weeks remains effective. Republican legislative leaders say no—that the two provisions were coupled so that businesses wouldn’t wind up paying the bill for the extension. The governor and her allies say the provisions are separable.
New COVID-19 case numbers continue a positive trend state-wide. Yesterday’s report had 3,414 new cases and 88 new deaths along with 105 reclassified deaths from prior dates. The seven-day running average for new cases is down again to 2,491, which is up a bit. For deaths it is 82—that number still lagging high because of deaths reclassified from prior dates. In the eight-county region we’ve followed from the start, there were 39 new cases, and two new deaths. Charlevoix had one new case. The deaths were in Benzie and Grand Traverse with one each. Averages for the region are 39 new cases and two deaths a day.
Statewide there are now 159,143 active cases. Our region has 2,678. Both of those tallies are continuing a steady ramp down.
Last reported average positivity rate statewide is down slightly to 8.2% and it is 7.3% for our safe start zone—up slightly. The rate in Charlevoix county is 3.2%. The C-D-C target is 3%. The latest hospital occupancy looks good. 73.1% of in-patient rooms are in use statewide and 69.3% in our region. For I-C-Us, the rate is 75.1% for the state and 65% locally. Looking at COVID-19 cases in our local hospitals, the numbers are steady. Munson Hospital in Charlevoix has one COVID-19 patients, in a regular room—down from two. At McLaren in Petoskey, they have 10 patients–all of them are in their I-C-U.
On the island, the Health Center reported no new tests and no new results. There is one test pending. No new positives since the 7th.
Complete data for our region plus summaries for the state, the T-C safe start zone and the U-P are in the table below.
|
|
|
Cases |
Deaths |
Δ Cases |
Δ Deaths |
|
Totals |
State |
483922 |
12282 |
3414 |
193 |
|
Region |
7471 |
155 |
39 |
2 |
|
|
TVC Zone |
12571 |
295 |
73 |
5 |
|
|
UP |
14171 |
324 |
53 |
4 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
7 Day Rolling Averages |
State |
2491 |
82 |
|
|
|
Region |
40 |
2 |
||
|
|
TVC Zone |
72 |
3 |
||
|
|
UP |
32 |
2 |
||
|
Note: Look back 4 days to adj. for no 12/25-16 & no Sunday data. |
|
||||
|
|
County |
Cases |
Deaths |
Δ Cases |
Δ Deaths |
|
Region |
Antrim |
529 |
9 |
2 |
0 |
|
Benzie |
559 |
25 |
3 |
1 |
|
|
Charlevoix |
719 |
9 |
1 |
0 |
|
|
Emmet |
1058 |
33 |
3 |
0 |
|
|
Grand Traverse |
2728 |
42 |
18 |
1 |
|
|
Kalkaska |
457 |
12 |
4 |
0 |
|
|
Leelanau |
551 |
6 |
4 |
0 |
|
|
Otsego |
870 |
19 |
4 |
0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
Est. Active Cases (cases <31 days old) |
State |
159143 |
|
|
|
|
Region |
2678 |
||
|
|
|
TVC Zone |
4996 |
||
|
|
|
UP |
2965 |
||
|
Note: Look back now 26 days to adjust for 4 Sundays with no data. |
|
||||
Data from December 29, 2020