North Michigan News

While the entire nation continues to see a rise in COVID-19 cases and deaths, officials within Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration are raising ongoing concerns regarding Michigan’s position in the larger national picture.

Sarah Lyon-Callo, director of the Bureau of Epidemiology and Population Health at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), recently said that the state ranks sixth in the nation for the total number of COVID-19 cases and fifth for total number of COVID-19-linked deaths, according to Bridge Michigan.

A PowerPoint document appearing on Michigan.gov explains that, in terms of deaths per million, Michigan ranked 10th in the nation around the middle of November, which could be a more significant number than the total deaths in the state.

Worldometers, which tabulates data from state and national databases, showed Michigan currently in ninth place in the nation in terms of total cases since the beginning of the pandemic.

Michigan had 958 coronavirus-linked deaths per million residents as of Dec. 1, putting it fairly close to neighboring Illinois, which was ranked 4th with 1,036 deaths per million, according to Worldometers.

The distance between first and ninth is much more extreme, according to Worldometers. New York and New Jersey continue to lead the country -- and the world -- in deaths per million. At 1,938 deaths per million, New Jersey is actually experiencing more than double the death rate of Michigan, despite some of the strictest pandemic restrictions in the country.

Regardless of the numbers, Whitmer focused on warning Michiganders about the potential severity of the virus.

"We are in the worst moment of this pandemic to date," Whitmer told Bridge Michigan. "The situation has never been more dire. We are at the precipice and we need to take some action, because as the weather gets colder and people spend more time indoors, the virus will spread, more people will get sick and there will be more fatalities."