Dear Municipal & Community Leaders:
Sports that can be played with a mask can proceed with contact practice and competitions beginning Monday, Feb. 8.
- Today, MDHHS updated its current epidemic order to allow contact sports to resume as of Monday, Feb. 8, provided masks are worn during play or practice.
- For sports where masks cannot be worn and social distancing cannot be maintained all participants must be tested consistent with the program specified in the Testing and Additional Mitigation Measures for Athletic Practice and Play section of MDHHS’s Interim Guidance for Athletics, which will be available online at Michigan.gov/coronavirus on Sunday, Feb. 7.
- Sports organizers are encouraged to administer a testing program even if it is not required.
- The order remains in effect through Monday, March 29.
Do you want to know at any given time how many vaccines have been distributed and how many administered?
- It’s always here: COVID-19 Vaccine Dashboard
- Answer for today: Distributed 1,818,225; Administered 1,127,787; Percent Administered 62.03%.
- The total vaccines administered under the Federal Long-Term Care Pharmacy Program can be found there, too.
- Answer for today: 123,966.
- The number of enrolled providers, also shown on the dashboard, has increased to 2,106.
Now for Thursday’s COVID-19 data
Bridge Michigan Coronavirus Tracker
New Cases
- Today’s reported case count is 1,358.
- Michigan reports a total of 565,251 confirmed coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic.
New Case Trends
- Case rates have been in solid decline for 24 days and are currently at 159 cases per million after peaking at 740 cases per million on Saturday, Nov. 14.
- Three MERC regions in the state are now below 150 cases per million people: the Detroit, Traverse City and Upper Peninsula regions.
Deaths
- The state reported 74 additional COVID-19 deaths today including 63 deaths identified during a Vital Records review.
- Confirmed COVID-19 deaths now total 14,778.
Hospitalizations
- Hospital capacity dedicated to COVID-19 patients has been in 10-week decline, with current capacity at 6.6% for beds with COVID-19 patients. COVID-19 hospitalizations peaked at 19.6% on Tuesday, Dec. 4.
Testing
- The test positivity rate is currently 4.9% and declining. This is the first time positivity has been this low since mid-October.
- Since the pandemic began, Michigan has performed more than ten million COVID-19 tests with a total test count of 10,008,837. This includes 434,574 antigen tests and 9,574,263 PCR tests.
Looking for vaccine resources?
Michigan shares communication resources for residents and partners to support the COVID-19 response. Visit the Vaccine Communications toolkit for social media, digital, print, radio and video resources you can use to support the COVID-19 response. Let’s all encourage Michiganders to help slow the spread of the virus, and to share the Spread Hope, Not COVID campaign.
Together we will keep reaching our vaccination goals:
- 70% of Michiganders age 16 and up vaccinated as quickly as possible.
- 90% of doses received administered within 7 days of arrival.
- 95% of people get their second doses of vaccine within the expected time frame.
- Zero Disparity in vaccination rates across racial and ethnic groups or by social vulnerability index.
- 20-minutes, no Michigander should have to drive more than 20 minutes to reach a vaccination site.
- 50,000 shots in arms per day.
- You can find more information on Michigan’s goals, guiding principles and vaccine strategy here: Michigan Interim COVID-19 Vaccination Strategy
Gary Jones
Community Affairs
Governor Gretchen Whitmer
Cell: (517) 282-3193
JonesG9@michigan.gov
