MONROE, Mich. — Editor's note: The above video was first posted on March 18.
Monroe County in southeast Michigan is approaching the types of new case numbers they saw at the height of the COVID-19 surge in November and December and sits at the top of the list of where new cases are rising the fastest in the entire country.
On April 3, the Monroe County Coronavirus Response Hub reported a 7-day average of 117 new cases per day.
The 7-day average hasn’t been that high since December 3 when it sat at 129, just below the peak of the winter surge.
On February 18 that number dropped all the way to 15 before beginning to climb again.
Michigan is being hit especially hard as new COVID-19 variants have taken hold in much of the state.
According to the New York Times, 8 of the 10 metropolitan areas in the entire country with the greatest numbers of new cases of COVID-19, relative to their population, in the last two weeks are in Michigan.
Monroe sits at number four on the list behind Jackson, Detroit, and Flint.
In addition, Monroe is at the top of the list in the country where new reported cases are rising the fastest, according to the New York Times.
In the last two weeks, Monroe has had 1,297 new cases. Monroe’s population is just over 150,000 people.
Despite the recent surge, Monroe County sits low on the list of communities with populations over 50,000 with the highest cumulative case rates per 1,000 since the start of the pandemic.
Data from the Monroe County Coronavirus Response Hub shows the newest outbreak is mostly in ZIP Codes within the city of Monroe, 48161 and 48162.
In addition, the age groups below 29 years of age are showing the highest numbers of new cases.
Since the start of the pandemic in spring of 2020 Monroe County has seen 9,740 cases of COVID-19 with 197 deaths.
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