The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Washtenaw County ticked up a bit, according to thelatest data. Although the bigger concern is the new fast-spreading variant which has already arrived in the county. The first confirmed case of the strain in the county was found last week.
Washtenaw County has been holding steady at a medium risk level for the last six weeks or so. But health officials are more concerned with the latest COVID variant: XBB.1.5. It is more transmissible and is spreading in other parts of the country, especially in the Northeast.
Susan Ringler-Cerniglia is the Public Information Officer with the Washtenaw County Health Department. She says it’s difficult to track right now because standard testing doesn’t tell you what strain it is.
“But our broader surveillance regionally, we can see that it’s making up somewhere around 10% of tested cases right now. But that is pretty rapidly increasing.”
On the positive front, flu and RSV cases have been trending downward in recent weeks, although health officials are still awaiting data from the days following the holiday break.
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