GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — Despite Michigan recording, on Monday, its highest daily death toll since the COVID-19 pandemic began, there may be some good news buried in the numbers.
In his daily briefing, Dr. Adam London, the director for the Kent County Health Department suggested efforts to flatten the curve may be paying off in Kent County.
"Here in Kent County as of this morning, we have 177, cases of COVID-19 that have been diagnosed by our local hospitals and health department, and 5, which unfortunately is an increase of 2 deaths over yesterday," he said during the briefing. "We're getting a lot of questions about flattening the curve and are the things that we have done having an effect on the curve of this illness."
London suggested they are. While breaking down the numbers, he said due to the 6-day incubation period of the illness and delays in testing, we are just now getting to the point where we can see if we are slowing the spread.
"Going back to March 31, we've got about a week now of incubation and laboratory testing period that we can look at. And so, what I have here is a graph of our new cases day over day here in Kent County," he said. "If you average those out, what we have is 12 or 11 cases pretty much day over day over the past week. This is really encouraging. This is showing that what we're doing is having some effect."
London also looked at the rate it takes cases do double and points out that Kent County is doing better than many other places in Michigan and the rest of country.
"This is a measure of how many days, it is taking for the number of cases to double in geographic areas. Right now, in the US, it's 5.7 days. So every 5.7 days the total number of cases in the United States is doubling. Here in Michigan, overall it's 4.6 days. But in Kent County is 7.9 days," he said.
"This is really good. It's taking almost 8 days for our total number of cases to double here in Kent County. What this shows is that in a month, in the United States, the number of cases is going to double about 5 times."
London said in the state of Michigan, the total number of cases is doubling about 6 1/2 times every month. But in Kent County, in a month, the total number of cases is only going to double, a little less than 4 times every month, or this month.
"This is good news," London continued. "Again, this is showing us that our rate of increase has flattened, and it's flattened, to the point that I can conclude that what we're doing right now is having an effect."
London said it's extremely important that people continue to stay the course and not start relaxing our efforts.
"We are still early on in this epidemic," London said. "We've got the tiger by the tail right now. It's not time to let go."
STATE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR COVID-19
Patients with confirmed infection have reportedly had mild to severe respiratory illness with symptoms of:
- Fever
- Cough
- Shortness of breath
The best prevention for viruses, such as influenza, the common cold or COVID-19 is to:
- If you think you have been exposed to COVID-19, call your health care provider. If you do not have a health care provider, call the nearest hospital.
- Wash your hands often with soap and warm water for 20 seconds. If not available, use hand sanitizer.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands.
- Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or upper sleeve when coughing or sneezing.
- Avoid contact with people who are sick.
- If you are sick, stay home, and avoid contact with others.
- Stay at least 6 feet away from others when in a public setting.
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