Michigan COVID-19 Death Count Tops 7k, Numbers On The Rise

C: Yohann LIBOT - Unsplash

Editor’s note: The COVID pandemic is ongoing. It has not yet been defeated and thousands are still dying daily around the world.

Today we will release three pieces on what is, without question, the biggest news story in the world this year – anywhere!

One – a now routine case of one area in the United States struggling to combat the disease.

Another – a piece on vaccines and where we stand, albeit with the caveat that this is an issue of combatting the virus that changes by the hour.

And the third – how Taiwan, where we are based, has managed to do so well in containing and essentially defeating the virus on our islands here off the east of the Asian landmass.

Mask-up, and stay safe.

COVID-19 test

Michigan’s COVID-19 infection count saw almost 1,800 added to the overall tally on Saturday, with 23 new deaths taking the total number of those who have lost their lives to the ongoing pandemic past the 7,000 mark.

The latest figures released by state officials number 144,897 cases on infection with 7,010 deaths.

The accuracy of figures is still being brought into question, however, with 15 of the deaths ‘yesterday‘ being added as a review of previous statistics and data according to sources.

Over the past week, the average number of daily cases is now nearing 1,500 – a high not seen since the early days of the pandemic when average daily cases numbered 1,395 in the second week of April.

“You may not see yet the rise in hospitalizations and deaths because it depends a lot on the age group getting it,” professor of epidemiology at Michigan State University, Nigel Paneth said, adding “(B)ut it doesn’t stay that way. “(Infected people) go to the store, next thing you know, some older person gets infected — and it doesn’t have to be an older person. Young people die. It happens.”

C: Priscilla Du Preez – Unsplash

Across the state of almost 10 million,104,271 are now being recorded as having recovered from the virus.

However, with the state one of America’s perennial ‘swing-states’ in U.S. elections, and with the U.S. Presidential election just over a fortnight away with both candidates encouraging their supporters across Michigan to canvass neighbours and get out and vote, the figures may be compounded by mass gatherings at polling stations as we move into November and the holiday season.

Across the wider U.S. at time of typing, the total number of cases stands at 8,341,467, with 224,274 having died as a result of their infection.

C: Brian McGowan – Unsplash

Mark Buckton

Mark is a journalism vet of 20 years with most of those years spent in Tokyo, Japan, as a columnist for The Japan Times and numerous other publications. His work has appeared on CNN, in the BBC, NPR, and in several dozen other media forms and publications across five continents.