COVID-19: Weekly Review of Washtenaw County Data Shows Fewer Deaths and Fewer Cases

A weekly review of local COVID-19 data shows continued improvement.

Each Friday, The Saline Post reviews the week's data from county and state sources. Here's what we saw this week:

• This week there was one death in Washtenaw County, compared to two last week and seven the week before.
• This week there were 10 hospitalizations in Washtenaw County, compared to eight last week and 10 the week before.
• This week there were 256 cases in Washtenaw County, compared to 320 last week and 398 the week before.
• This week there were seven cases in Saline's 48176 zip code, compared to 17 last week and 13 the week before.
• On Thursday, the positive test rate in Washtenaw County was .98 percent, compared to 1.46 percent last week.
• It appears the county updates vaccination data once a week. This week's update showed 3,593 people getting their first shot and 1,122 people getting their second shot. Those numbers were 2,434 and 676 the previous week.

In terms of daily data, there were no new COVID-19-related deaths in Washtenaw County for the second straight day. 236 Washtenaw County residents have died with COVID-19. There were also no new hospitalizations for the second straight day. There 38 new infections recorded for the second consecutive day. The positive test rate fell from 1.33 percent to .98 percent. It's the first time the county's positive test rate has been below 1 percent since Sept. 19. The high rate of testing in Washtenaw County contributes to the low rate.

In Michigan, the positive test rate has been more stubborn. It rose from 3.55 to 3.95 percent.  Michigan reported 10 new COVID-19-related deaths, bringing the total to 15,610. There were 1,486 new infections reported in Michigan.

Hospitalization data showed the number of patients in critical care beds falling after four straight days of rising. There were 222 patients in critical care beds, down seven from the previous day. There were 97 patients receiving care with ventilators, down by five from the previous day. The number of pediatric COVID-19 patients rose from 11 to 14.