KENT COUNTY, Mich. — Over the past nine days, confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Kent County have doubled and health officials are reporting a recent climb in cases.
There are now 503 cases and 25 deaths within the county.
Sunday, 43 new cases were recorded, which is the second highest daily case count Kent County has seen since the pandemic first started. Friday, health officials reported the highest daily count of 45.
Kent County is seeing the biggest outbreak outside of southeast Michigan, which has been hammered by thousands of COVID-19 cases. The majority of Kent County's cases are in the city of Grand Rapids.
Dr. Adam London, Kent County's director of public health, said the increase is likely due to expanded testing.
"It really shouldn't surprise us," London said in Thursday's daily briefing, "because testing is becoming much more readily available. We are also seeing some small clusters of illness in workplaces around the county."
Kent County is not reporting its own testing data. However, numbers from the state of Michigan for the Region 6 Healthcare Coalition, which covers 13 West Michigan counties, show testing is increasing.
The latest data shows that 456 tests were conducted on April 17, which is the highest daily total to date and nearly 90 more than the day prior. Additionally, 52 of those tests were positive. Across the state, however, testing has fluctuated and lags behind states with similar numbers.
Michigan has the fifth highest number of COVID-19 cases and the third highest death rate in the country.
State officials are making testing a priority. Last weekend, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced 13 new or expanded COVID-19 testing sites. The state has also grown the list of testing criteria to include people with mild symptoms, and it has published a COVID-19 test site finder to help residents locate testing sites near them.
Despite that, both Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Michigan's Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun say more testing is needed in order to have a grasp on the virus and understand how to suppress it.
"We continue to work with our lab directors across the state to understand what the challenges are. We know that there are many labs that don't have the reagents they need to be able to actually do the test, we know that there are challenges with swabs, like literally the thing that goes to take the sample," said Khaldun in Friday's update.
Whitmer said Sunday the lack of adequate testing is a hurdle in getting the state reopened. She contends Michigan has the capability to triple the level of testing, but the state is lacking the supplies that the federal government could help provide.
"Anyone who has mild symptoms should absolutely seek out a test across the entire state, and we'll continue to aggressively push on expanding our testing," said Khaldun.
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