Restrictions have been loosened and more people are getting the COVID-19 vaccine, but state and local health officials warn it's too soon to let up on safety precautions.
"I'm concerned about our current numbers," said the state's chief medical executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun at a Friday morning press conference.
Khaldun said state data shows a 77% percent increase in case rates since mid-February, and a 177% increase in the percent of tests coming back positive during the same time period.
"We could potentially be at the beginning of another surge in Michigan," Khaldun warned. "How this plays out depends on what we all do collectively, to protect ourselves and our families. Let's not give up our fight."
Cases are beginning to mirror early October numbers, which gave way to a surge in West Michigan where hundreds of lives were lost to the virus.
"Now, the good news is we didn't have this level of immunity previously," said Dr. Andrew Jameson, division chief of infectious diseases at Mercy Health Saint Mary's.
Over 37% of Michigan's population 65 years old and older are fully vaccinated.
But, hospitalizations are rising statewide with 4.9% of available inpatient beds being used to care for COVID-19 patients.
Jameson said Saint Mary's had five new patients admitted in one night this week.
"Which is more than we've had in one night in a while," he said.
Both Kent and Ottawa health departments warned of the rising cases on Friday.
"The county’s positivity rate has increased from 2.9 to 5.9% over the last two weeks," read a release from Ottawa County's Department of Public Health, where a B.1.1.7 variant case was recently confirmed.
The state is not sequencing all tests, but so far, there are nearly 760 confirmed variant cases in the state, one of the highest counts in the country.
Dr. Jameson said he attributes the recent uptick to the presence of the more easily transmittable variants, loosened restrictions and 'COVID-19 fatigue.'
"I feel like we're just up against that battle right now of kind of everyone being tired of this," he said Friday.
Saint Mary's positivity rate jumped from 4% to 10-12% in the last week, he said.
While the vaccine provides a defense to the spreading variant, Jameson said supply is still not able to meet demand.
"The variant is spreading faster than we have access to vaccine," he said. "We're kind of losing that race, and my big fear is that we are not going to have people interested with the uptake that's going to be needed."
Vaccine supply is expected to increase drastically in the coming weeks based on news from the federal government, so much so that state health officials have made everyone ages 16 years and older eligible for vaccine starting April 5.
But Dr. Jameson and some county health officials have expressed concern about demand for the vaccine dropping off before the state reaches herd immunity.
Just under 15% of the population 16 years old and older is fully vaccinated. The state's goal is to vaccinate 70% of that population as soon as possible.
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