Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will hold a COVID-19 news briefing on Thursday afternoon.
UPDATE: 3 takeaways from Michigan Gov. Whitmer’s COVID briefing on Thursday
Whitmer will be joined by Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, who will provide an update regarding COVID-19 and the continued efforts to slow the spread of the virus.
Earlier this week: Michigan extends COVID-19 restrictions for 12 days to gauge Thanksgiving impact
New COVID-19 cases are slowing but deaths continue to rise in Michigan. Testing has remained steady, with more than 46,000 diagnostic tests reported per day, but the positive rate has increased to near 14% over the last week. Hospitalizations have slowed but remain high over the last five weeks, including upticks in critical care and ventilator use.
More: How to track Michigan COVID-19 data
Coronavirus trends in Michigan are beginning to show signs of improvement in early December following a recent influx of COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths, according to health experts.
Michigan, like much of the country, has been experiencing a surge in coronavirus spread that sometimes rivaled numbers only seen at the onset of the pandemic earlier this year. COVID-19 cases in Michigan have been on the rise since September, with virus hospitalizations and deaths steadily increasing since October.
In a report published Dec. 9 by Sarah Lyon-Callo, Director of the Bureau of Epidemiology and Population Health at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), Michigan’s COVID cases and deaths appear to be increasing at slower rates and virus hospitalizations are either plateauing or decreasing throughout the state as of Dec. 5. More on this here.