(WXYZ) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said the COVID-19 surge in the state appears to be slowing down a bit. On Thursday, the state reported 6,303 new cases of COVID-19, about 1,600 fewer than the day before. The total is now over 770,000.
The spread of new variants continues to grow in the state though, with Macomb and Wayne counties having the most in metro Detroit.
Hospitals in the state are continuing to fight the virus, with more than 30 in metro Detroit reporting being at 90% capacity or higher. Some have even started setting up outdoor curbside triage units.
"We're starting to see things look as though they're slowing down a bit," Whitmer said to ABC News Live on Thursday night.
The state has led the nation for two weeks in new cases and infection numbers have climbed for seven weeks.
"I don't want to, by any stretch, say that this isn't serious and that we don't all have to take this very seriously. But we're making progress and it's incumbent on everyone in this state to do their part," Whitmer said.
"If you look at the rise in COVID patients in this state. That's concerning to because we're still on that upslope we haven't seen the top of this yet so we don't know where that end of the peak is going to be," Beaumont Internal Medicine Physician Dr. Justin Skrzynski said. "Also it's going to take people a few days or a week after their diagnosis for instance, to be sick enough to need hospitalization. So even after cases peak in the state, we're still going to see cases rising in the hospital."
At Henry Ford Health System, administrators report five of their hospitals are at 90% capacity or higher and they're caring for 550 COVID-19 patients as of Thursday.
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