INGHAM COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT - The Ingham County Health Department (ICHD) held their weekly press briefing today, and revealed the total COVID-19 confirmed cases have amassed 15,000. Out of those 15,000 cases, there are currently almost 1,300 that are active. There are also 262 total COVID-19 related deaths in the county, making the Case Fatality Rate (CFR) 1.7%.

While the numbers may seem big, the number of hospitalizations in the county have steadily decreased since December. On December 3, over 160 people were hospitalized from COVID-19. More recently, on February 11, that number decreased to around 60. Back in May, hospitalizations were as low as five:

"Hospitalizations are now clearly coming down nicely, clearly we've got a little bit of room to continue to improve. Those numbers are still higher than what we were looking at back in April when all of this began...I'd much rather see us in the range we were [in] late May," explained Linda Vail.

The ICHD also showed the Incidence Curve, as it revealed the amount of new cases per day have been steadily decreasing since December. On December 6, there were over 150 new cases whereas more recently on February 14 there were less than 50.

The Percent Positivity is also trending downward as it was almost 15% on December 29, compared to about 5% on February 12:

"[We'd like] that number to steadily get below 5%, and we're just not there yet," emphasized Vail.

The top age group affected by COVID-19 in Ingham County remains 20-29, as 30 percent of cases are within that age range. The second age group most affected are 10-19 year olds at 15%, followed closely by 30-39 year olds (13%).

For more information on COVID-19 in Meridian Township, please visit the Township website at meridian.mi.us.