Data shows 20% of Ingham County has had COVID-19

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 26 — The Ingham County Health Department has  tracked a total of more than 57,000 COVID-19 cases since 2020 — cumulatively representing about one infection for every five county residents while the omicron variant pushes caseloads to new extremes.

County Health Officer Linda Vail offered a status update on the pandemic yesterday afternoon. She said that a recent spike in caseloads fueled by the omicron variant’s early December arrival in Michigan may finally be showing signs of reaching a plateau. But she also cautioned: The proportion of positive tests and subsequent hospitalizations still remain at an all-time high.

“These are the highest numbers we’ve seen in the pandemic,” Vail said. “That is true nationally. That is true almost everywhere you see. These are also our highest percent-positivity numbers.”

Here’s the latest statistics from the Health Department:

• There were at least 13,850 active COVID-19 cases in Ingham County last week — most of which were detected among residents of Lansing zip codes 48911 and 48912, and Eaton Rapids zip code 48827. About 55% of cases are among women; 45% are men. Vail billed that as a “sharp increase” compared to the last two years of the pandemic.
• It’s highly unlikely that the rise in caseloads will continue at its current rate throughout the rest of the year, Vail said. If it does, however, Ingham County would be poised to tally more than 167,000 cases by Christmas — well over half the county’s population.
• So far this month, the Health Department has tracked an average of more than 555 new COVID-19 cases every day. Last year’s countywide total of 30,814 cases represented an average of only about 84 cases per day. In 2020, there were about 35 local cases daily.
• At least 49 Ingham County residents have died this year from complications tied to COVID-19. Vail tracked a total of 387 deaths last year and another 202 deaths in 2020. 
• Over the last month, about 25% of new cases reported in Ingham County were among people ages 20-29. About 18% of new cases were among those ages 30-39 — which represents a rate of about 8% of the county’s population in that particular age bracket. 
• Hospitalizations are also seeing an upward trend. Between Sparrow and McLaren hospitals in Lansing, a total of 214 patients were hospitalized with the virus this week — including 29 people in intensive care, 15 of the cases bad enough to require a ventilator.
• Though only about 15% of the cases tracked this year are among Black people, Vail said that Black residents are still being disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus. About 5.9% of local Black residents have tested positive this year compared to 3.1% of white people — an 88% difference that shows a disparate impact at the onset of the New Year. Vail cautioned: “This is early data. There have been years where we’ve seen that number get big and then go back down again. But we are starting this year off with a very significant difference in prevalence rates between these two populations.”

• About 73% of Ingham County residents who are eligible to receive the vaccine have had the shot. Some age groups are faring better than others: About 98% of those over the age of 65 are vaccinated. But only about 36% of children between ages 5-11 have been vaccinated, in part because those shots have only been available since mid-November.