Holland Reporter

After seeing a recent downturn in COVID-19 cases, Michigan seems to be on the rise again.

While there have been fewer positive cases and hospitalizations lately, that seems to have come to an end in recent weeks, according to Bridge Michigan. This has led Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to keep current restrictions in place, such as an indoor dining ban, especially with the 4,326 new infections reported on Jan. 6 alone.

Whitmer said restrictions on businesses likely won't be lifted or loosened until at least Friday, Jan. 15. 

“I anticipate some more days of data before a determination is made on what the next steps look like,” Whitmer said, according to Bridge Michigan. 

The state saw a new low in December of 1,600 new cases on Dec. 27 and 28, but since then, there has been a steady increase in cases. 

Hospitalizations have risen twice in the last week, but they are still below the national rates. 

State officials are also saying that a second strain of the coronavirus, initially discovered in the United Kingdom, may have arrived in Michigan. 

“I don't think we would be surprised if it was here already, and we expect that it could have significant impacts on the spread of the disease in the state,” state epidemiologist Sarah Lyon-Callo told Bridge Michigan. She said the state will be monitoring for variations in the virus. 

"Specimens of COVID tests sent to the state laboratory have been genetically sequenced since the beginning of the pandemic in March," Lynn Sutfin, spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, told Bridge Michigan. "However, specimens from tests that are sent to other labs — hospitals or private labs, for example — are sequenced only if they are passed on to the state lab for a particular reason. Given that B.1.1.7 was first identified in Great Britain, a lab should forward specimens from a person being tested who also recently traveled to Great Britain."