Two Michigan counties and the City of Detroit carry more than 70 percent of all cases in Michigan, with more than 4,500 cases between them.
Oakland and Wayne counties, combined with the City of Detroit, have 4,560 confirmed cases out of the 6,498 in Michigan, according to data from Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
Detroit, which the DHHS said is tracked separately from its home of Wayne County, has 1,801 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Monday night. This makes up 27.7 percent of all Michigan confirmed cases and makes it the area in Michigan which has the most confirmed cases of the coronavirus. It also has 54 of the 184 deaths from the virus in the state, or 28.3 percent — the highest in Michigan.
Wayne County currently is the area in Michigan with the second-highest number of cases, with 1,394 confirmed cases in the county, 21.5 percent of all confirmed cases in the state. Oakland County has 1,365 confirmed cases — 21 percent — making it the area in Michigan with the third-highest number of cases. Oakland County and Wayne County also have the second- and third-highest death rate in the state, respectively. Oakland County has 48 deaths, or 26 percent of all deaths in the state. Wayne County has 31 deaths, or 16.8 percent of all deaths in the state.
The fourth-ranked county, Macomb County, has 728 confirmed cases, or 11.2 percent of all confirmed cases in Michigan. It has 27 deaths, or 14.7 percent of all deaths in the state.
Michigan is ranked third for number of cases across the country, following New York at 66,497 confirmed cases and New Jersey at 16,636 confirmed cases, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project.
A spokesperson from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said the high number of confirmed cases in the state comes from its targeted testing.
“Michigan has been closely following CDC guidance on persons under investigation and testing since the start of the outbreak. This has led to targeted testing among higher risk groups that initially included international travel history and symptoms of COVID-19 or known exposure to a person confirmed to have COVID-19 and symptoms,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement to The Michigan Star. “It now includes (priority 1) hospitalized patients and healthcare workers with symptoms; (priority 2) patients in long-term care facilities with symptoms, those 65 and older with symptoms, patients with underlying conditions with symptoms and first responders with symptoms; and (priority 3) critical infrastructure workers with symptoms, individuals who do not meet any of the above categories with symptoms, healthcare facility workers and first responders; and individuals with mild symptoms in communities experiencing high numbers of COVID-19 hospitalizations.”
The spokesperson also said that the many of the labs doing testing are located in Southeast Michigan, an area with “known community spread,” leading to a higher number of results from the area.
As of Monday evening, there are more than 140,904 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The death toll is more than 2,400.
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Jordyn Pair is a reporter with The Michigan Star. Follow her on Twitter at @JordynPair. Email her at [email protected].
We can blame racially motivated white flight from Detroit to nearby surrounding towns for this mess. The white flight robbed Detroit of its tax base, thus leading to policies that would over-tax the poor who had to remain in Detroit while under-taxing the wealthy. This, in turn, would lead to the reduction if not outright elimination of essential health safety nets that would lead to greater vulnerability to virus epidemics and the replacement of potable water with lead-contaminated water and to bottled water sold above market value to people on low income. This is a racket perpetrated by both parties.