Michigan Reports 699 New COVID-19 Cases, 7 Deaths

Michigan is reporting 699 new cases of the coronavirus and 7 additional COVID-19 deaths.

Deaths announced Thursday include 6 deaths identified during a vital records review.

Michigan now has 75,947 total confirmed coronavirus cases and 6,148 COVID-19 deaths.

Wednesday the state was at 75,248 confirmed cases with 6,141 deaths.

The state is now providing weekly updates on the number of people who have recovered from COVID-19. These numbers will be updated every Saturday.

As of July 17, 55,162 are being reported as recovered in Michigan.

The state defines ‘recovered’ as the number of persons with a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis who are alive 30 days post-onset (or referral date if onset is not available).

There will be several free COVID-19 testing events in northern Michigan over the next few days.

Friday and Saturday, there will be drive-thru testing at Traverse City East Middle School, as well as in the Upper Peninsula.

Upper Peninsula COVID-19 testing will take place at St. Ignace Area Schools’ parking lot on Friday, and Luce County Road Commission in Newberry on Saturday.

You must bring an ID to get tested.

Earlier this week, the Cadillac City Council approved a resolution to bring what’s called a “social district” to downtown.

This comes after Gov. Whitmer signed legislation that allowed carryout options for alcoholic drinks from restaurants and bars on July 1. The bill also allowed cities to create social districts with businesses.

Common areas within the social district allows people to sit outside and enjoy their drinks within that area.

Cadillac City Manager Marcus Peccia says, “This new program generally allows for businesses that are licensed through the State of Michigan Liquor Control Commission that have their businesses contiguous or touching the common area sell alcoholic beverages in disposable cups with their logo on it along with the logo identifying the common area.”

The social district will be located on the west side of Mitchell Street between Harris and Cass.

While the approval of the resolution is the first step, there are still many more measures that need to be approved by the city or the state.

For the first time in nearly four months, the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits went up.

The Labor Department reported another 1.4 million people sought jobless aid last week.

That spike comes just days before an extra $600 a week jobless benefit is set to expire.

But the Labor Department says total number of people receiving jobless benefits fell by about a million to 16.2 million.

Major airlines are reporting massive second quarter losses.

They’re also warning that the recovery in air travel seen in April has stalled as cases of the coronavirus surge in the U.S.

American Airlines posted a loss of more than $2 billion.

Southwest lost nearly a million.

Combined losses of the country’s four biggest airlines now stands at more than $10 billion in just three months.

Between April and June, about 15 million people rode on American and Southwest.

In 2019, that number was nearly 100 million.

Wednesday, during President Trump’s coronavirus briefing, he announced the White House came to an agreement with the drug company Pfizer, which is testing a COVID-19 vaccine.

He says they came to agreement with Pfizer to produce and deliver a 100 million doses of its vaccine, immediately following its approval.

President Trump also says there is a national testing strategy but it is up to the governors of the states.

On Capitol Hill, Congress continues to negotiate another coronavirus relief bill.

The White House says it wants it passed by the end of the next week.

However, Republicans don’t agree on what should be on the bill and Democrats say they’re waiting to see the GOP proposal.

Both sides agree they want to continue the enhanced unemployment benefit program, but it is likely to be reduced from the current $600 a week.

White House Coronavirus Task Force member Dr. Anthony Fauci warns its possible COVID-19 will never be fully eradicated. However, health experts are saying it is highly unlikely you can be re-infected with the virus.

California hit a new single day record on Wednesday, reporting 12,000 new cases. Bringing the amount of total confirmed cases there to 400,000. Now California is surpassing New York in confirmed cases.

Florida and Texas are both reporting more than 300,000 cases since the pandemic began.

More places are now taking more precautions to help fight the pandemic. Ohio, Indiana, Minnesota, Baltimore and Washington D.C. are the latest to mandate wearing face masks in public spaces.

The NFL announced if there is a season, fans will be required to wear a face mask at all games.

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