Michigan added 1,860 cases of COVID-19 and 26 deaths from the virus on Monday including totals from Saturday and Sunday.
The state reported an average of 620 cases per day over the three days.
Monday's additions bring the state's overall total to 2,056,751 confirmed cases and 31,817 deaths since the virus was first detected there in March 2020.
Hospitalization rates and case counts in Michigan have been on the decline for the last six weeks, indicating to some health experts that the fourth surge is subsiding as predicted.
The latest figures come as the state and several Michigan counties have relaxed or intend to curtail regulations to stem the spread of the virus.
Wayne County lifted its emergency mask order for K-12 schools earlier this month, sooner than had been expected. The county's decision came after state health officials dropped public health advisories regarding mask usage in most indoor public settings and K-12 schools.
Health departments in Washtenaw and Oakland counties said they also plan to lift COVID-19 orders related to K-12 schools at the end of the month.
On Friday, the state reported 1,208 adults and 34 pediatric patients were hospitalized with confirmed infections and 80% of the state's inpatient hospital beds were occupied.
It's a steep decline from records set on Jan. 10, when 4,580 adults were hospitalized with COVID-19.
About 7% of the state's hospital beds were filled with COVID-19 patients and there were an average of 1,112 emergency room visits related to COVID-19 per day in the state as of Friday. That compares to 24% of hospital beds being full and 2,889 daily emergency room visits due to the virus in the first week of January.
Case counts continue to drop from early January, when the state set a new high mark with more than 20,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 per day.
Coming off the highest case numbers of the entire pandemic, all of Michigan's regions are experiencing declines in case rates and hospitalizations, the state health department noted earlier this month.
Three medical teams from the Department of Defense remain in Michigan at Covenant Saginaw, Henry Ford Wyandotte and Lansing-based Sparrow Health System.
In Michigan, variants of the virus have moved at a high rate, proving more contagious than past variants and infecting both unvaccinated and vaccinated residents.
The state, as of Friday, confirmed 5,000 cases of the omicron variant and 31,000 cases of the delta variant by genetic sequencing at the Michigan Bureau of Laboratories in Lansing. The majority are in southeast Michigan.
Although a small percentage of tests are selected for genetic sequencing, health officials believe roughly 95% of cases of COVID-19 in the country are caused by the omicron variant, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The percentage of COVID-19 tests returning positive in Michigan is on the decline. Minnesota and Indiana have the highest case rates in the Midwest; California and Texas have the highest case rates in the U.S.
Between Feb. 17-23, about 7.7% of Michigan's COVID-19 tests returned positive, compared to 9% a week prior. There is an average of 11,700 weekly cases in the state.
Residents aged 30-39 currently have the highest case rate of any age group.
As of Tuesday, 100 new outbreaks were reported over the prior week. The majority — 58 outbreaks — were tallied in long-term care facilities and senior assisted living centers. Another 24 outbreaks occurred in K-12 schools, 12 at child daycare or sports programs, and five were in jails or detention centers. The state is tracking 889 ongoing outbreak cases.
About 65% — or 6.5 million — residents have received their first doses of a vaccine, as of Tuesday, and 59% are fully vaccinated. More than 221,000 children ages 5 to 11 in Michigan — or 27% — have received their first dose of the vaccine.
More than 2.9 million vaccine booster doses have been administered in Michigan.
Approximately 2% of those fully vaccinated have been reported with a breakthrough infection, according to the state health department.
