(WSYM) — The month of March brought massive increases in COVID-19 in Michigan, according to data from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
Active cases of COVID-19 are up more than 163% from March 1 through March 30, according to the data, and up more than 56% just in the last week.
The increase in active cases coincides with a massive increase in daily new cases of COVID-19.
On Tuesday, Michigan reported a daily total of more than 5,000 new cases and 48 new deaths, 20 of which were identified in a review of vital records.
The day before, the state reported more than 8,200 new cases over the weekend, which averaged out to more than 4,000 new cases per day.
On March 1, there were around 32,400 active cases of COVID-19, and by March 30, there were around 85,400 active cases. That's an increase of 163.58%.
Michigan also had the worst COVID-19 infection rate for any state in the country over the last 7 days, according to information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
According to the data on their COVID tracker, Michigan had 361.5 cases of COVID-19 per every 100,000 people. That puts Michigan at the highest in the country, grouped only with New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
New Jersey had the second-highest COVID-19 rate at 351.7 per 100,000 people. Both New York and Connecticut were below 300 per 100,000.
However, Michigan's COVID-19 infection rate does trail New York City, which the CDC does not calculate as part of New York State. NYC over the last 7 days had a COVID-19 rate of 366.5 per 100,000 people.
The state also ranks second in the country for the B.1.1.7 variant, which is more transmissible.
According to CDC data, Michigan has 1,237 cases of the B.1.1.7 variant, behind only Florida which has 2,351 cases of the variant.
The state is continuing to vaccinate more people. As of March 29, there have been 2,680,794 Michiganders who have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
