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Possible COVID-19 exposure at Torch Lake, health officials warn more to come from holiday weekend

Courtesy of the Michigan State Police

 

The times of lounging on a crowded beach or walking through a busy downtown without a mask are coming to an end.

The Health Department of Northwest Michigan announced possible COVID-19 exposure at Torch Lake on July 4, when thousands of visitors partied on the lake’s sandbar.

In a news release, the health department says several visitors from another Michigan county have tested positive for COVID-19, and possibly spread the virus at the event.

Health Officer Lisa Peacock says the new cases are a worrying trend.

 

"This situation reminds us of how important it is to take precautions such as avoiding large gatherings whenever possible especially without social distancing and masking," she said in a statment. "Unfortunately, this is not an isolated event and leaves our community at risk when close contacts are not able to be identified and alerted to quarantine. We can’t stress enough how that it is imperative that we each do our part to stay safe and stay open.”

 

The Grand Traverse County Health Department also listed the Turtle Creek Casino as a potential COVID-19 exposure site the night of July 5. 

 

The health department reports recent clusters of cases stem from the activities of different groups of people boating, playing sports and having parties. Grand Traverse County health officials add recent exposure sites were reported because people traveled while sick or before they got COVID-19 tests results back.

 

For the past three weeks, cases in the state and region have been growing steadily. On July 10, 15 new cases were counted in northwest lower Michigan.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued a new executive order mandating people wear masks or other facial coverings in crowded outdoor locations and reiterated they must also wear them in all indoor spaces.

Now those who refuse will receive a penalty. Whitmer says those with uncovered faced will be fined $500, and businesses will be required to enforce wearing a mask. The order takes effect on Monday, June 13.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer blames careless behavior from last weekend for the increased measures.

“Over the holiday weekend we saw countless Michiganders gather in large groups to celebrate the 4th of July without a mask,” Whitmer said during her July 9 remarks.

Whitmer said other cases are also still emerging from certain locations, including food processing plants, bars and long-term care facilities, but community transmission remains a problem.

The MI Safe Start map, managed by epidemiologists working for the state, changed the northern Michigan region from a “low risk area” to a “medium risk area” this week, because of the increase in cases. Since June 30, 20 new cases were discovered in Grand Traverse County, while 11 and 10 were also counted in Leelanau and Mason counties, respectively. 

The Benzie-Leelanau Health Department says an outbreak in Leelanau County was tied to young people socializing and led to several businesses temporarily shutting down due to staffing shortages. 

Still, Josh Petrie, a research assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the UM School of Public Health, says it’s too soon to know how much COVID-19 spread over the holiday weekend.

 

He says new cases sometimes take a while to show up, as people can not show symptoms for up to a week after becoming infected. Numbers released during and after a holiday weekend also tend to show a false decrease because data isn't collected as much during long holiday weekends.

 

Other indicators like hosptializations and deaths tend to lag a few weeks behind new infections, Petrie says. Hospitalizations also aren't that useful to measure because young people, who are getting infected more now, don't typically get sick enough to be admitted.

 

"It's really only been about two or three weeks that we've started to see an increase in cases again, he says. "If people who do get sick, if they do die, it's often up to a month after they get infected. We may be seeing them in a few weeks."

 

So how can we measure where we’re at?

Petrie says the state’s positive rate, right now hovering at about 2.4% is a good indicator.

 

"People may say we're testing more, we're catching more cases, which is true," he says. "But we're also starting to see the percent of those tests that are positive, that percent positivity is increasing over that same time (in which more testing is available)."

 

As the percent positivity climbs, it means the disease is spreading, Petrie says.

 

Meanwhile, as cases are confirmed, local health departments are also strapped for contact tracing support. Three regional public health departments, not including Grand Traverse County, are using the state’s network of community contact tracers to help monitor people for 14 days after they were exposed to someone who tested positive.

Taylor Wizner covers heath, tourism and other news for Interlochen Public Radio.