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Michigan was warned about British COVID-19 variant, but many ignored it
Tresa Baldas, Detroit Free Press, and Mohar Chatterjee, Derek Kravitz and Bianca Fortis, Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism, Columbia Journalism School
Local health departments across Michigan started sounding the alarm months ago.
A deadlier coronavirus variant that had first ravaged Britain was now here in metro Detroit, at the University of Michigan, a state prison in Ionia and rural counties in the Thumb region with doctors, nurses and public health officials fully aware.
And yet Michiganders from state prison employees to small business owners and local officials to parents of high school athletes ignored medical experts repeated warnings about the highly infectious variant. They rebuffed stay-in-place recommendations, allowed crowded events to occur and turned a blind eye to defiant behavior, according to
Michigan adds 8,574 cases, 61 deaths from COVID-19, hospitalizations reach new high mark
Michigan added 8,574 new COVID-19 cases and 61 deaths Monday, including cases from Sunday, as the state marked a record-high number of hospitalizations in the pandemic.
The latest figures bring the state s total number of cases to 793,881 and deaths to 16,901 since the virus was first detected in March 2020, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services. The state estimates an average of 4,287 cases per day between Sunday and Monday.
The state has led the nation in new
infections and hospitalizations for two weeks. Infections have now risen for eight consecutive weeks.