Confirmed COVID-19 cases increased by 264 in Isabella County over the last seven days, almost a third of them coming from Central Michigan University.
The new cases brought Isabella County’s cumulative total to 6,178, with 98 deaths. No new deaths were reported, although hospitalizations lag new cases by an average of two weeks and deaths lag hospitalizations.
Two people were receiving intense care at McLaren-Central Michigan as of Friday morning, according to the hospital’s self-reported data. Three people with COVID-19 occupied beds in the hospital, including the two in the ICU. Sixty-five percent of the hospital’s beds were occupied by people requiring care of all kinds as of Friday.
During the seven days preceding Wednesday, three people in Isabella County received hospital care for COVID-19, according to Central Michigan District Health Department data.
CMU reported an additional 82 cases over the seven days going back from Thursday for a seven-day moving average of 11.7 cases per day.
University officials expected new cases at the beginning of the school year, and CMU’s seven-day average of new cases is lower than its seven-day average of new cases during what was primarily a youth-driven spring outbreak earlier this year. Then, at one point, CMU was averaging more than 15 new cases per day.
The current wave of COVID-19, fueled by the highly transmissible Delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, is also heavily influenced by youth cases, including cases among children who were largely unaffected during previous waves. Among the six counties served by CMDHD — Isabella, Clare, Gladwin, Osceola, Roscommon and Arenac — cases in the 5-9 and 10-19 rose at a rate more than doubled that of the 20-49, 50-74 and 75+ age groups in the seven days preceding Wednesday.
Mt. Pleasant Middle School students were put on virtual learning starting Monday due to an outbreak at that school that as of Thursday involved 47 cases, 42 of those from the student body.
Additional cases were reported at one of the district’s elementary schools. And an elementary school in the Shepherd school district announced it would require masks next week due to it hitting district mask policy criteria. It was the only of four buildings in the district that didn’t hit that threshold last week.
Clare and Gratiot counties also saw additional confirmed cases over the last seven days, although not at a rate as high as they were in Isabella County.
Clare County had an additional 74 confirmed cases, bringing its cumulative total to 2,382, with 88 deaths.
Two people in Clare County received hospital care for COVID-19 during the seven days preceding Wednesday, according to CMDHD data. One person was hospitalized at MidMichigan Health-Clare for COVID-19 on Friday morning, according to data self-reported by the medical center network, but was not reported in the intensive care unit. Twenty-seven percent of the hospital’s beds were occupied by people receiving care of all kinds.
An additional 113 confirmed cases were reported in Gratiot County over the last seven days, bringing its cumulative total to 3,598, with 119 deaths.
Gratiot County is served by Mid-Michigan District Health Department, which doesn’t provide the level of case demographic and hospitalization data as CMDHD.
Five beds in MidMichigan Health-Alma were occupied by people with COVID-19, according to the network’s self-reported data. None were in the ICU. Eighty-three percent of the hospital’s beds were filled with people receiving care of all kinds as of Friday morning.
