COVID Added To Vaccine Schedule, New Strains Hit Michigan

MICHIGAN — As COVID-19 hospitalizations in Michigan reach their highest levels since early August, federal officials voted Thursday to add the COVID-19 vaccine to its list of recommended immunizations for children starting at 6 months old and adults.

A CDC advisory committee, which is made up of public health, medical and scientific experts outside the CDC, voted unanimously to include COVID shots in the agency’s recommended immunization schedule.

However, nothing in the vote requires Michiganders to get the shots, nor does it mean students have to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to attend Michigan's schools.

CDC officials do think it’s a good idea for people to get inoculations against COVID-19, which has killed 1.06 million people in the U.S. alone since the first laboratory-confirmed domestic case was reported in January 2020. But the agency isn't requiring the vaccinations as a condition for school enrollment. That authority falls on the states.

What Vaccines Are Required In Michigan Schools?

Although schools in Michigan do not require students to be vaccinated against COVID-19, they do - like most states - require students to be required against childhood diseases.

Michigan requires students be vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, polio, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Hepatitis B and Varicella (Chickenpox), according to Britannica’s ProCon.org.

Exemptions are allowed in Michigan for religious and philosophical reasons, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

New Variants Emerge In Michigan, Midwest

Meanwhile, two COVID variants that Dr. Anthony Fauci has called "pretty troublesome" have emerged in the region: BQ.1 and BQ.1.1. Both represent offshoots of the omicron variant, not only spreading quickly but also showing remarkable abilities to evade immunity.

In Michigan's region, BQ.1 represented 7.4 percent of cases, while BQ.1.1 accounted for 6.4 percent of infections, according to the CDC's latest weekly estimates. (The CDC's most timely data for variant proportions is regional. Michigan's region also includes Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.

The CDC adopted the community-level metric — a metric based on hospitalizations and case rates — in late February. The agency updates its color-coded COVID maps each Thursday, recommending masks in counties with "high" community levels.

Michigan had no counties showing high community levels.

The CDC's mask recommendations do not trigger any mandates in Michigan. People may also choose to continue masking in any setting.

COVID-19 By The Numbers In Michigan

While mask recommendations are minimal, the region's wastewater shows COVID levels in the region are among the highest in the nation — a figure that can indicate the virus's path before lagging indicators such as hospitalizations and death tolls. COVID wastewater levels are measured by estimated gene copies per milliliters of sewage.

In the Midwest, which includes Michigan, wastewater samples had 545 copies/mL during the past week, according to Biobot Analytics, which monitors sewage as it relates to public health. The figure is higher than the numbers from the south and west, but significantly lower from the highest region in the Northeast, which showed the highest COVID concentration at 1,159 copies/mL. See the data here.

The state's hospitalization totals crept higher this week, with 1,179 patients with confirmed or suspected COVID in hospitals as of Tuesday — up from 1,055 people one week prior, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

Michigan has seen 173 people die from the virus in the past week, according to the CDC. Federal officials reported about 2,400 deaths from COVID complications around the nation during that timeframe.

Josh Bakan, Patch Staff, contributed to this article