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Michigan has 5th-highest virus rate in US over past week

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan had the country’s fifth-highest rate of new COVID-19 cases in the last week and is among 14 states where infections rose over the past two weeks, a trend that state health officials said is potentially tied to the increasing prevalence of a more contagious coronavirus variant.

One in every 602 people was diagnosed in the past week, a rate that was higher than in 45 states. Michigan had the country’s 10th-highest per-capita case rate over the last 14 days. The seven-day case average is 2,372, up from 1,335 on March 1.

Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, the state’s chief medical executive, said Michigan is in a ìdifferent placeî than earlier in the pandemic because of vaccinations but warned herd immunity is in the distance. More than 25% of the age 16-plus population had received at least one dose as of Tuesday.

ìWe are hopeful that as we get more and more vaccines into the state and more and more people vaccinated, we will not see a the type of surge we saw in 2020. But I still think we are at risk,” Khaldun said Wednesday, noting that new variants are more easily spread and the vaccine — while still effective — may not be as effective against them.

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