LANSING, Mich. — The number of COVID-19 outbreaks statewide is on the rise, particularly in schools.
New outbreaks were up around 40% over last week and a full 100% involved school-age children.
It came as a CDC panel moves to approve a pediatric version of the Pfizer vaccine for emergency use Tuesday.
Outbreaks recorded on the state health department’s website showed a whopping 195 new additions to the list.
Between those emerging hot spots and the more than 600 ongoing outbreaks Lansing already had on its radar, it pushed the running tally of active clusters to 855, many in the state’s struggling school districts.
In West Michigan, Kent County topped the list, with local districts accounting for a significant chunk of real estate.
Cedar Springs High School was grappling with some of the heftiest totals of any K-12 setting in the state at the time of publication, with 67 cases then listed as part of an ongoing outbreak there.
“Ideally, we’d love to be able to let our parents make those choices, but we also understand… that there are public health experts… if they issued a mandate, obviously we would abide by that.”
That was Superintendent Scott Smith, who told 13 ON YOUR SIDE the district remained in close coordination with county health officials and that, if not required, observing approved precautions was actively encouraged.
His response came as the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services pointed to a link between higher transmission rates and a lack of effective masking policies.
13 ON YOUR SIDE’s own digging showed Cedar Springs did not have a mask mandate in place.
On the flip side, Grand Rapids, where the numbers remained appreciably lower, required them, though the seeming correlation doesn’t hold true in every case.
“It’s direct data. So, we continue to recommend that everybody mask up,” MDHHS’ Chelsea Wuth related via phone Tuesday.
Getting shots into the arms of an up-to-now totally unvaccinated segment of the population, Wuth said, would also likely curb the uptrend and drive the numbers lower.
“We're ready,” Wuth said. “The doses of the vaccines have arrived in the state. We have over 4000 providers across the state that are ready to vaccinate children… we’re really excited about the potential.”
The state had already received its first allotment of pediatric vaccine as of Tuesday, according to MDHHS.
More than 800-thousand Michigan children will be newly eligible following an expected approval from the CDC director.
To locate a vaccine provider near you, click here.
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