Morning Briefing Feb. 28, 2021: 1 killed, 2 injured in Sterling Heights house fire, barricaded situation in Royal Oak ends, US authorizes third COVID-19 vaccine
The US is getting a third vaccine to prevent COVID-19, as the Food and Drug Administration on Saturday cleared a Johnson & Johnson shot that works with just one dose instead of two.
The number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in Michigan has risen to 587,581 as of Saturday, including 15,522 deaths, state officials report.
Saturday’s update includes a total of 1,156 new cases and 68 new deaths -- including 62 deaths identified during a review of records, meaning they did not occur between Friday and Saturday.
The state reported a total of 541,258 recoveries from the virus on Saturday.
State officials no longer provide coronavirus data updates on Sundays, The next update is expected Monday afternoon.
New COVID-19 cases have plateaued and deaths have slowed. Testing has slowed in the last week, dropping to about 35,000 diagnostic tests reported per day on average, with the 7-day positive rate down below 4.0% as of Tuesday. Hospitalizations continue to decline over the last several weeks.