Michigan’s confirmed COVID-19 cases: Doctors aim to test only most serious cases

Michigan COVID-19 cases by county (WDIV)

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) is reporting the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state.

The department also is reporting cases by county, cases by gender and the number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized. This has been the state’s reporting system since March 16, when the MDHHS announced it would no longer report the number of persons under investigation, tests pending, referred for assessment and/or monitoring to date and total assessment and/or monitoring referrals under active monitoring. Deaths may be reported by specific hospitals.

The state updates its totals 2 p.m. daily at michigan.gov/coronavirus. The numbers often do not reflect an individual county’s case count because the counties may report confirmed cases a day earlier than the state.

This data is becoming problematic as doctors make it clear that the vast majority of COVID-19 cases may go unreported. Health officials are advising people with mild symptoms to stay home, do not go to a hospital and do not consider getting tested. That means only the most serious cases will be tested.

Beaumont Health’s Medical Director of Infection Prevention and Epidemiology Nick Gilpin spoke about this at a press conference March 18 after the hospital announced the state’s first COVID-19-related death.

“A lot of patients who are experiencing mild symptoms and don’t have underlying symptoms don’t need to be tested because it won’t change how we will treat you,” he said.

He said he expects between 80-90 percent of patients to recover uneventfully. You can watch that full news conference with Beaumont Health officials right here:

Here is a charted timeline of confirmed coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in Michigan:

Here’s the Michigan county case count mapped and the total number of cases in each US state:

Here are Michigan COVID-19 cases broken down by age range:

Here are Michigan COVID-19 cases showing how many are hospitalized:

Here are Michigan COVID-19 cases broken down by gender:

The following map is showing data per state -- click on a particular state to filter the data in the table for a breakdown: