HOLLAND (WHTC-AM/FM) — COVID-19, which has devastated some families Southeast Michigan, is making ugly inroads into West Michigan.
Sixteen Ottawa County residents are now dead from the aggressive upper-respiratory virus. County health officials reported 30 hospitalized, 300 diagnosed with the virus, and 64 considered recovered. One week ago, county officials reported164 people with the virus and 8 deaths.
Allegan County has also had a spike, from 61 residents with the virus one week ago to 104 people as of Friday, May 1, 2020; from one death to two.
Statewide, 42,356 have COVID-19, which has killed 3,866 Michiganders, as of Friday, May 1, 2020.
The virus is not moving consistently scross the state — or for that matter, the country. It’s peaking, plummeting or even briefly plateauing in various places.
Kent County — West Michigan’s hotspot — has seen cases more-than double in a week’s time, from 626 with the virus to 1,305, with 36 deaths
But Kent, like Allegan County, has a 2 percent death rate. Ottawa Counthy’s 5.3 percent death rate is– but Muskegon, with 290 diagnose residents and 17 dead from the virus, has a death rate is closer to 6 percent, and may be West Michigan’s next COVID-hot county.
The curve may be flattening on the other side of the state, but that’s not yet happening in West Michigan.
This week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control launched an online Coronavirus Self-Checker nicknamed Clara, which can help people decide whether or not to contact their doctor if they are feeling sick. The symptom checker does not ask for the person’s private information: https://bit.ly/2UX7qXl
