coronavirus vaccine

The average age of people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Michigan has been dropping as the total number of people hospitalized with the disease rises, health officials said Thursday.

Two-thirds of people hospitalized at Munson Healthcare, a network of hospitals and clinics across Northern Michigan, were under 65 years old, said the organization’s chief medical officer, Christine Nefcy.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan says the city is in real danger from COVID-19 again, and things are likely going to get worse.

After months of relatively few COVID-19 cases, the virus is surging in Detroit once again. The city’s test positivity rate is now over 20%, and more than 400 Detroiters are hospitalized.

Michigan paused the use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine today after federal health officials recommended doing so Tuesday morning.

Updated April 13, 2021 at 8:10 AM ET

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday they are recommending a "pause" in the use of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine out of an "abundance of caution" while an investigation is conducted into reports of apparently rare, potentially dangerous blood clots.

People living in some Detroit and Hamtramck neighborhoods will get a chance to get a COVID-19 vaccine close to home this week and next. Mobile vaccination clinics at more than a dozen sites are set to start on Wednesday April 14, and run through the following Wednesday.

State and city health officials are targeting areas at higher risk for COVID based on factors like race, housing, and transportation. Detroit's vaccination rate has consistently lagged the state average.

The Henry Ford Health System will contribute to an ongoing national studying the efficacy of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in children, in a study similar to the one it conducted with adults last year. 

Dr. Adnan Munkarah, Chief Clinical Officer, said that the hospital system will begin looking for parents to volunteer children between the ages of 6 months and 12 years old to take part in the study in the coming weeks.

Any Oakland University student living in on-campus housing this fall will need to be get the COVID-19 vaccine before fall move-in in August. Students can get an exception for a religious or medical reason.

Bob Murphy is the chief policy officer at the Michigan Association of State Universities. He says although Oakland may be the first state university to have some sort of vaccine mandate, it won't be the last.

Detroit’s TCF Center will soon be giving out around 8,000 COVID-19 vaccinations every day, Mayor Mike Duggan announced on Wednesday.

The city is already administering about 5,000 shots a day through TCF’s drive-thru vaccination site, and will continue to do so.

More Detroiters now say they’re very likely to get a COVID-19 vaccine than said so in the fall, according to a University of Michigan survey.

The University of Michigan’s Detroit Metro Area Communities Study regularly surveys Detroiters about their lives and communities. Its latest survey covered more than 2200 people.

Detroit on Monday immediately expanded COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to all residents 16 and older, a week earlier than planned, as Michigan continues to confront spiking infection rates that rank third-highest in the country.

Mayor Mike Duggan said the seven-day testing positivity rate in the state’s largest city doubled in 10 days, to 10.3%. Hospitalizations also doubled over that period but, unlike during the second wave of cases last fall, involve younger people in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s.

“The younger people are getting infected. The younger people are being hospitalized. We have got to start to get them vaccinated,” Duggan said.

The death toll from COVID-19 in Michigan officially surpassed 16,000 thousand today. That’s as the state races to vaccinate more people while the number of confirmed infections rise, and the number of people hospitalized because of the virus is at its highest level since January.

While the expanded availability has given a sign of hope for many in the state, public health leaders warn the risks of the virus haven’t gone away just yet.

The rapid rise in COVID hospitalizations over the last few weeks has health officials worried, but still hoping vaccinations can help curb the fallout of climbing case counts.

As of Tuesday, more than 1,500 adults and 21 children are currently in the hospital with confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to the state’s dashboard.

That’s still far lower than the peaks in November and last spring, when some 4,000 Michiganders were hospitalized. And it’s “too soon to tell” whether this is the start of yet another spike, said Brian Peters, CEO of the Michigan Health and Hospital Association.

Detroit is taking its campaign to vaccinate residents against COVID-19 to more places in the city.

The city is opening up “Community Saturdays” at eight sites, mostly churches. Previously, these Saturday clinics were open only to seniors. Now, they’re also open to any adult Detroiter who has a job that requires in-person work.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan says it’s part of an effort to reach the zip codes hit hardest by the pandemic, and people who don’t have easy access to the TCF Center mass vaccination site.

Michigan's one of just 11 states where COVID cases are trending up this week, with an average of just over 2,000 new cases confirmed every day. Although, bear in mind that several states that are declining, are just coming off big outbreaks. That comes as the more easily-transmissible B.1.1.7 variant continues to spread, and people have returned to pre-pandemic levels of daily travel and non-essential trips.