WVBI COVID-19 Update for February 18, 2021

Follow-up COVID-19 vaccination clinic went well yesterday. There were plenty of volunteers on hand and no backups.  We don’t have an official tally yet, but presumably another 150 people or so are now fully vaccinated.

 

Governor Whitmer has quietly extended the 25% capacity and 10 P-M curfew for bars and restaurants another month.  The news was included in an release earlier this month put out at a press conference about the resumption of high school sports, but the state made no announcement about it. A trade association for the industry says the extension may be the final straw for many businesses.  Michigan continues to stand largely alone in the extent of its restriction sin this area, they say.  Yesterday they proposed that full reopening–that’s 100% capacity and regular hours– be allowed once the positivity rate drops below three percent, which is the C-D-C target. 

 

State COVID-19 report from yesterday shows the downward trend is continuing. There were 939 new cases and 11 deaths in the report. Seven-day running average for new cases is 901. For deaths, the average is 30 a day. In the eight-county region we’ve followed from the start, there were 15 new cases and one death. Charlevoix had two new cases and the single death. Seven day running averages for our region are 15 new cases a day and one death. 

 

Statewide there are now 38,826 active cases—down by about 1,900. Our region has 827—down by 55. 

 

Positivity rates shown on the state’s Safe Start dashboard continue to move in the right direction. Statewide rate is at 3.5%, down two tenths.  It’s 3.6% in our safe start zone. That’s up one tenth. And the rate in Charlevoix county is up one tenth to 1.5%. The C-D-C target is 3% or less.  New case per million rates continue on a steady slope down.

Overall hospital occupancy rates continue to look good both statewide and in our safe start zone—essentially normal.  Statewide, 4.5% of available beds are occupied with COVID-19 patients. For I-C-U beds, COVID occupancy is 8.1%.  There are no COVID-19 patients at Munson in Charlevoix and eight at McLaren in Petoskey—all in their I-C-U.

 

On the island, no new tests.  No tests pending. No new positives since December 7^th.

Complete data for our region plus summaries for the state, the T-C safe start zone and the U-P are in today’s script online.

 

 

Data from February 17, 2021