MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - The Ingham County Health Department gave updates about COVID-19 cases across the county in their weekly meeting on Tuesday, October 13th. Health Officer Linda Vail provided facts about MSU cases and talked about how there were more cases in East Lansing than other places.

When cases were looked at by zip code, East Lansing had far more cases than any other area in Ingham County. There were over 600 cases recorded that were MSU related during the week of September 7th. Since the beginning of the pandemic 52% of all cases in Ingham County come from the 18-24 age group.

One of the commonalities that was found in MSU cases was that there was a higher positivity rate than other areas. Nearly 15% of all tests were positive at MSU compared to about a 5% positivity rate in Ingham County.

Vail explains the possible reasons for the gap, “Every time somebody gets tested the likelihood that they're positive is high. Now that's one of two things: we’re only testing the severely ill or are we just not testing enough.”

Since the beginning of the pandemic 52% of all cases in Ingham county come from the 18-24 age group. While Ingham County has reported no deaths in this age group, she attributes the increase in deaths and hospitalization in older age groups to younger people giving it to them.

According to the Ingham County Health Department, people 80-years old and up account 44.3% of all deaths and people between 70-79 account for 32.7% of deaths in the county.

As of October 13th, there are 4,008 confirmed cases of COVID-19 cases in Ingham County. There was a surge in cases in the county in early September and cases have continued to increase

Vail expects that there will be a surge in coronavirus cases and maybe even a second wave in the winter and going into 2021. She said, “What happens with regards to cases is largely going to depend on people.”

Some things that are advised are to practice 6-feet of social distancing, wear a mask, avoid gathering in large groups, and increase hand-washing.