(WWJ) Thousands of Michiganders are winning the fight against COVID-19.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services released updated recovery numbers Saturday afternoon. They have more than doubled to 8,342.
State health officials say they list a person as ‘recovered’ if he or she is alive 30 days after they test positive for the virus. Today’s numbers account for anyone diagnosed with coronavirus on or before March 25.
The total is updated every Saturday.
That number is expected to skyrocket within the next week, as it will account for all survivors who were diagnosed on Michigan’s peak-day of confirmed infections.
More than 1,900 infections were confirmed in Michigan on April 2, the most cases diagnosed on a single day to date.
Still, the case count and death toll from COVID-19 continues to climb in Michigan.
562 new cases have been reported in the state in the past 24 hours. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services says 189 more residents have lost their lives to the virus, although health officials say the high number could be partially due to a lag in reporting from days or weeks ago.
That brings the total to 37,203 cases and 3,274 deaths.
The median age of the people who pass away from COVID-19 is 76 years old, meaning half are younger and the others are older. The average age is 74.
Detroit remains the hardest hit city with a total of 8,548 confirmed cases and 912 deaths. The rest of Wayne County has 7,000 cases and 648 deaths. Oakland County has 6,881 cases and 612 deaths.
Data from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services shows Metro Detroit is declining in rate of cases per 100,000 residents.
The following graph shows the rate of cases per 1,000,000 residents in Oakland, Macomb and St. Clair County.
This graph shows the rate of cases per 1,000,000 residents in Wayne (including Detroit), Monroe and Washtenaw County.
However, the western part of the state appears to be experiencing a sharp increase in rate of cases per 1,000,000 residents.
You can see the graph for the region encompassing the Kalamazoo area below (Allegan, Barry, Calhoun, Branch, St. Joseph, Cass, Berrien, Van Buren and Kalamazoo counties):
The Grand Rapids area (Clare, Ionia, Isabella, Kent, Lake, Mason, Mecosta, Montcalm, Muskegon, Newaygo, Oceana, Osceola and Ottawa counties):
It is worth mentioning Saturday's 562 new cases is one of the lowest daily increases we have seen since late March. However, a lack of staff on weekends to do proper reporting may account for the discrepancy. Weekend numbers have consistently been lower than weekday numbers throughout the pandemic.