Copper Country Sees COVID Jump by 81 Cases this Week

The Copper Country saw 273 cases of COVID-19 last week.  That is a increase of 81 cases from the previous Western Upper Peninsula Health Department’s report on October 6^th. Houghton County recorded the only death this week. This is the highest weekly case count for the five counties since before June 2021. The region has collected 7,408 cases since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, including 178 deaths. Houghton has the most deaths, at 54. Houghton County has also registered the most cases with 3,776 cases.

All five counties enter the week designated with the highest transmission level. This is the fifth week in a row that all five counties hold this designation. The last time any counties were labeled as low or moderate transmission was the August 18^th report from WUPHD.

Overall vaccination rates for the Western UP is up 0.3% from last week, totaling 56.3%. Baraga County had the highest increase in vaccinations, jumping up by a half percent, to 49.2%. But is still the lowest vaccinated county in the region. Ontonagon is still the highest vaccinated county with 64% of people having received the initial dose of the COVID vaccine.

According to Frontline UPdates, in the Upper Peninsula 57 people are hospitalized with COVID right now. 19 of whom are in the ICU. 6 of those 19 are on ventilators. Frontline UPdates also notes that on October 15th, 263 adults across the state were hospitalized with positive COVID status.