Michigan is now one of the country's top distributor of the COVID-19 vaccine.
As of Monday, state health officials had administered more than a million doses of the vaccine.
Since Jan. 25, Clinton County added 132 new COVID-19 cases and 8 deaths; Eaton County saw 209 new cases and 6 deaths; Jackson County confirmed 228 new cases and one death. Ingham County reported 498 new cases and eleven confirmed deaths in the past week.
“This is our cumulative curve. You’ll see we’re starting to approach a flat curve compared to some steep increases we’ve seen. That’s not a completely flat curve but we’ll get there one day,” Ingham County Health Officer Linda Vail said Tuesday.
With last week’s case rates starting to plateau after a major surge in November, overall COVID death and hospitalization numbers are starting to fall slightly. Experts say the numbers should continue the downward trend as vaccination efforts ramp up.
Efforts to speed up vaccinations are a national issue. The White House says pharmacies will be able to vaccinate eligible members of the public as soon as next week.
“Starting on Feb. 11, the federal government will deliver vaccines directly to select pharmacies across the country. This will provide more sites for people to get vaccinated in their communities. And it's an important component to delivering vaccines equitably. This pharmacy program will expand access to neighborhoods across the country,” White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said Tuesday.
More than 18,000 doses of the vaccine were administered in the greater Lansing area last week. Ingham and Jackson counties were shipped doses of both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines while Clinton and Eaton counties have exclusively been administering the Moderna vaccine.
Vail says health departments still need more doses to vaccinate eligible populations.
“We need as much as we can get, as fast as we can get it,” Vail said.
Tuesday 8,900 doses of the Moderna vaccine believed to be unusable after winter conditions brought the mid-January shipment below temperature storage guidelines have now been cleared for use in Michigan according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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