Author: Doug Donnelly

After no new COVID-19 cases were confirmed Friday by the Lenawee County Health Department leaving the tally at 59 for two days, Saturday, April 18, brought news of three new cases and a total since the count began of the novel coronavirus cases in Lenawee to 62.

The cases are split with 31 being females and 31 males. Hospitalizations of COVID patients remained at seven, but there are three more people – 30 all told – monitoring symptoms at home. There are 25 Lenawee residents who are no longer in isolation and improving, according to the health department statistics. No deaths have been officially attributed to the novel coronavirus, according to the health department.

The Lenawee County novel coronavirus has been confirmed in another three residents raising the count to 59. So far, though, there have been no fatalities confirmed from COVID-19, according to the Lenawee County Health Department website.

Of the 59, 29 are male and 30 are female. Six are hospitalized at this time, with 31 monitoring symptoms at home. But there now 22 residents who are listed as out of isolation and improving following the virus.

Statewide, there are 29, 263 Michigan residents who have contracted COVID-19, with 2093 who have died of it. The daily new-case total rose to 1204 after being 1058 Wednesday. Daily deaths was reported at 172 with an asterisk that 65 of those deaths were effectively reclassified reviewed in the Michigan Disease Surveillance System.

Hillsdale County is up to 84 cases with nine deaths; Jackson County has 209 cases with eight deaths; Monroe County has has 217 cases and their death toll rose one to 10 in the past 24 hours; Washtenaw County has reported 826 cases with 25 deaths.

Ohio now has 8414 total cases with 2331 hospitalizations and 389 deaths statewide. In the Toledo area, Lucas County, there have been 644 cases, 254 hospitalizations, and 28 deaths with no increase in deaths over 24 hours. Fulton County did see an increase to 10 cases with five hospitalizations, up from eight cases and three hospitalizations Wednesday.

Lenawee County has yet to report a confirmed death attributed to the novel coronavirus as of Wednesday, April 15. The confirmed-case count upped by three to 56 with 27 males, 29 females and six hospitalized. There are 31 people with coronavirus monitoring symptoms at home and 19 are now out of isolation and improving, according to the Lenawee County Health Department website which provided these figures.

Statewide, there was a positive sign when the new cases again dipped to 1058 new cases from 1366 new cases Tuesday. This is more in line with the Monday daily-new-case count of 997.

In Michigan, a total of 28,059 are among those counted with COVID-19. One thousand nine-hundred twenty-one people have died of the virus. Today, 153 Michiganians lost their lives to COVID-19.

Lenawee neighboring counties are faring as follows in Michigan: Hillsdale County has 81 confirmed cases and nine have died; Jackson has 195cases and eight have died; Monroe County has seen an uptick in the past week to 211 confirmed cases and nine deaths; and in Washtenaw, home of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, 798 residents have been diagnosed with the coronavirus and 24 have died.

The metropolitan Detroit area continues to have the most cases. Detroit City has 7136 cases with 475 total deaths; Oakland County has 5576 cases and 392 deaths; Wayne County has had 5408 cases and 409 have died; and Macomb County has 3792 cases with 330 deaths.

Ohio’s 7791 total cases is 27.8 percent of Michigan’s total cases. The state has seen 2237 of its residents hospitalized with COVID-19 and 361 have died.

Lucas County, home of Toledo, has had 596 cases with 240 hospitalized and 28 deaths. Fulton County, just south of the Lenawee County border saw its number of cases rise by one to eight with three hospitalizations.

News release from the Michigan Department of Treasury

LANSING – Michigan taxpayers are reminded that they should file their state income tax returns before midnight on July 15, according to the Michigan Department of Treasury.

On March 27, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed Executive Order 2020-26, pushing back the April 15 state income filing and payment deadline to July 15, 2020. Although both federal and state income tax returns and payments are not due until July, taxpayers who are owed a refund are encouraged to file their returns immediately.

“The Michigan Department of Treasury is ready to process your tax return,” State Treasurer Rachael Eubanks said. “If you are owed a refund, don’t wait until July to file your tax return. File your tax return today so you can receive the refund you are owed.”

Choosing electronic filing and direct deposit is convenient, safe and secure. Last year, more than 4.3 million Michigan taxpayers e-filed, which is 80% of state income tax filers. More information about e-filing is available at www.michigan.gov/mifastfile.

Individuals who e-file typically receive their refunds around two weeks after receiving confirmation the tax return was accepted by the state of Michigan.

Taxpayers are encouraged to check with their tax preparers to see if they can provide remote tax preparation services.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s “Stay Home, Stay Safe” executive order, the state Treasury Department’s Individual Income Tax Information Hotline is currently not available. Online services – including checking the status of a refund and asking questions — are still available through the Treasury Self-Service website.

The Michigan Department of Treasury has no information regarding the federal stimulus payments. For information about stimulus tax payers, taxpayers should contact the Internal Revenue Service through their web site at www.irs.gov or by phone at 1-800-829-1040.

To learn more about Michigan’s income tax, go to www.michigan.gov/incometax or follow the state Treasury Department on Twitter at @MITreasury.

Lenawee County’s confirmed number of coronavirus cases rose to 53 Tuesday, April 14, from 40 on Monday, April 13, but still has no deaths confirmed as being attributable to COVID-19, according to the Lenawee County Health Department’s coronavirus page.

There are 27 males and 26 females confirmed since the outbreak with six hospitalized at this time. Thirty-one are monitoring symptoms at home. However, 16 people have “discontinued isolation and are improving,” the website stated.

Hillsdale County’s death toll increased to nine today with 79 cases confirmed, noting an increase of two in both sets of statistics over 24 hours.

Monroe County has seen a surge of cases over the past week, up to 196 confirmed cases with eight deaths Tuesday. There were 190 cases and seven deaths as of Monday.

Jackson County, another Lenawee neighboring county, has 183 cases and seven deaths, while Washtenaw has had 772 cases with 21 deaths.

The picture grows more grim the closer one gets to Detroit City which alone exceeded the 7000-case mark with a total of 7004 total today. All told, 427 Detroiters have died of the coronavirus. Oakland County has 5364 confirmed cases and 364 deaths; Wayne has 5205 confirmed cases and 393 deaths today; and Macomb County has 3620 confirmed cases and 293 deaths, measuring the largest death increase in the metropolitan area with 53 new deaths today.

Michigan’s total cases now stands at 27,001 with 1768 lives lost since the pandemic began in the state. There were another 1366 daily cases reported – again, an increase over Monday’s 996 and the weekend’s even lower number. A total of 166 people in the state have died in the past 24 hours ending Tuesday afternoon. This, too, was an increase over Monday’s 115 daily deaths in Michigan.

Ohio has one quarter the cases of Michigan with 7280 confirmed cases of the coronavirus. There have been 2156 hospitalizations and 324 statewide deaths which is on a par with just one of the four metropolitan Detroit counties.

Lucas County, home of Toledo, Ohio, has 540 reported cases, 232 hospitalizations and 25 deaths. Fulton County, to its west and directly south of Lenawee County, has seven cases with three people hospitalized at this time of COVID-19.

The need for blood donations is always critical, but tin his current time, when people are staying away from hospitals and staying home under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive “stay-home-stay-safe” order due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for blood is even more dire.

The Blissfield American Legion will host a Red Cross Blood Drive – by appointment – from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 16, at the legion post on U.S. 223, Blissfield.

Easter arrived in Lenawee County finding still no local deaths confirmed as being caused by the coronavirus pandemic and residents worshipping during the Christian holiday in front of their computer screens. Many churches offered online options for Holy Week ceremonies.

Lenawee County released counts of 44 COVID-19 cases on Saturday, April 11, then 48 confirmed cases on Easter Sunday. However, the state of Michigan was reporting 47 confirmed cases in Lenawee as of its 3 p.m. Sunday report. There were no explanations for the discrepancy on the Lenawee County Health Department or michigan.gov’s coronavirus statistics pages.

The county health department said there are 25 males and 23 female residents who have been confirmed to have COVID-19 with six still hospitalized, 35 monitoring at home and seven residents recovered as of Easter Sunday.

In Michigan, there were some very positive numbers in the daily cases reported – 645 (down from 1392 on April 11) – and daily deaths with 95 on Sunday, down from 111 on Saturday. However, on the state coronavirus page there were asterisks on these two statistics and a note that they “may reflect a reduction in the amount of laboratory testing performed” over the weekend and Easter holiday. The site stated that there had been drops on the confirmations the past three weekends ranging from three to 25 percent, but an increase when the work week resumed.

The state reported 24,638 confirmed cases with 1487 total deaths to date.

The Detroit metropolitan area continues to lead the state in cases and death toll as follows: Detroit City has reported 6502 confirmed cases and 368 deaths; Oakland County has had 4915 confirmed cases and 329 deaths; Wayne County has had 4662 confirmed cases and 336 deaths; and Macomb County has had 3254 cases and 217 deaths.

Surrounding Lenawee County, Monroe County is up to 183 confirmed cases and six deaths; Washtenaw has 716 and 18 deaths; Hillsdale County has 75 cases and six deaths; and Jackson County has had 152 cases and four deaths.

Over the Michigan line, Fulton County has had seven cases and two hospitalizations but no deaths. Lucas County, home of Toledo, is second in deaths only to Cuyahoga County with 21 deaths. It is up to 503 cases with 208 hospitalizations. Ohio, overall, remains far behind Michigan wth 6604 total COVID-19 confirmed cases, 1947 people hospitalized; and 253 total deaths.

The Good Friday report on local coronavirus cases held some good news Friday for Lenawee County.
In fact, the trend began Thursday, April 9, when five recoveries replaced the three that had been reported up until that time this week, and continued Friday with seven Lenawee County residents deemed recovered from COVID-19, representing 18 percent of the people who have been confirmed to having had coronavirus locally, according to Lenawee County Health Department reports.
There are still 39 reported cases in the county overall since testing began, the same number as Thursday, with 20 males and 19 females having been confirmed locally. But the number of hospitalizations also declined from seven to six today representing 15 percent of confirmed cases, with 26 people monitoring symptoms at home (67 percent) also down from 27 Thursday, according to the health department.
At that point, no deaths have been confirmed associated with the coronavirus in Lenawee County, per the health departments website.
But statewide, the coronavirus page for michigan.gov, showed the trend that had been seen in a daily decline of new cases in Michigan turned around with an uptick from 1158 new cases Thursday to 1279 Friday. The state had seen a three-day trend downward from Tuesday-Thursday.
Friday was a deadly day in Michigan with 205 statewide daily deaths, as opposed to 117 Thursday, per michigan.gov. Overall, 1281 Michigan residents have died, a rise from 1076 Thursday.
Hillsdale County's confirmed case count increased from 64 Thursday to 70 Friday.
Monroe County had its deadliest day today adding three to the previous death toll of one, and a total of four who have died in Monroe County. Its confirmed cases rose from 165 Thursday to 174 Friday.
Lenawee County neighbor Washtenaw County now tallies 659 confirmed cases and 15 deaths, while Jackson County, next door, reports 140 confirmed cases and four resident deaths.
Detroit City continues to have the most case with 6218 and 327 deaths as of Friday, followed by Oakland County with 4511 confirmed cases and 282 deaths; Wayne County with 4321 confirmed cases and 282 deaths, the same as Oakland at this point. Macomb County in the metro area has 2973 confirmed cases and 197 in Macomb County. All these Michigan figures came from www.michigan.gov after the 3 p.m. Friday posting.
In Ohio, the number of confirmed cases had risen from 5512 Thursday to 5878 Friday on the Ohio state coronavirus website; hospitalizations statewide in ohio from 1612 to 1755; deaths from 213 to 231. Lucas County, where Toledo is located, has seen its confirmed cases rise from Thursday at 403 to 443 Friday, and its death count rise from 16 Thursday to 20 on Friday while hospitalizations rose from 144 to 172.
Fulton County, directly south of Lenawee County, remains at five confirmed cases and two hospitalizations, per the Ohio COVID-19 state website.