LANSING, Mich. — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced lighter pandemic restrictions for those fully vaccinated, but here in Michigan health officials warn that it’s still too soon to ditch COVID protocols.
Ingham County Health Officer Linda Vail says Michigan’s latest surge is still concerning.
“When you look at what the CDC does, that’s national … I think in Michigan, with the surge in cases we still have, we have to be more careful than that,” Vail said.
Michigan’s case numbers are slowly starting to fall but the state remains a national hot spot for COVID cases and hospitalizations, according to CDC reporting.
Hospitals in mid-Michigan are still being overwhelmed with COVID patients as the healthcare workers struggle with severe cases.
“We can see again an increase in the numbers of people in the I.C.U. and this really significant trend of people that are ventilated,” Vail said.
Over the past week Michigan identified more than 31,000 new cases of COVID-19 and almost 200 COVID deaths. In mid-Michigan, 604 cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in the past week.
“When we look at those numbers in rolling averages, we do see the numbers start to come down, so we are coming down nicely in terms of case counts,” Vail said.
Health officials are still worried as COVID-19 hot spots continue to pop up in Lansing and East Lansing.
“Some minor hot spots but those major ones are right in the urban core of our city,” Vail said.
Vail remains optimistic about the vaccination effort. As of Monday, Ingham County had vaccinated 49.3 percent of all eligible residents. With more vaccine supply than ever, walk-in vaccinations are now available across the city.
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