Cases, hospitalizations start declining in Berrien County

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NILES, Mich. — A good trend surfacing in the pandemic as COVID cases in Berrien County have started to fall after omicron’s surge. 

“Over the past three weeks the health department has seen COVID cases decreasing,” said Guy Miller, Acting Health Officer at the Berrien County Health Department. 

Berrien County dropped from just over 1,150 cases per 100,000 to 669, and its percent positivity rate – while still in high transmission – has gone down too, from 37 to 28 percent in its most recent data from the week of January 27ththrough February 2nd

“We have seen a decrease in the number of hospital patients as well as a decrease in the number of overall positives, with both of those things I’m confident to say we’re seeing an overall decrease,” said Miller. 

Adding more promise – MDHHS announced Monday that it’s now encouraging people with COVID to ask their doctor about oral medications to help.

“A lot of these drugs are going to be effective 5-10 days from your positive test date, so again, early reporting and testing is going to be necessary to getting timely treatment,” said Miller. “The way that they’re rolling out is different tiers of priority groups, those who are most likely to have severe illness will be at the front of the line.” 

The Berrien County Health Department said they have seen a significant drop in people coming to get boosters and continue to urge residents to strongly consider vaccination. 

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