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In February, few in the state had even heard of Covid-19 or what we were then calling the novel coronavirus. But by New Year's Eve, it will be the state's third most common cause of death.
Remember me? I haven't forgotten you. (File photo)
Covid-19, the pandemic disease that rocked the world, will have killed close to 12,000 Michigan residents, third only to heart disease and cancer. (The current toll is 11,775.)
It’s a staggering number, especially since the coronavirus wasn’t attributed to any deaths in the state before March 16.
... Then the dying started: 513 in March, then 3,745 in April — including an average of nearly 150 a day for seven awful days from April 7 to 14. At the time, the devastation was rooted in Detroit and its suburbs.
With nine days left in the year, COVID had killed 11,705 through Tuesday, dwarfing the typical toll of pneumonia and the flu, which kill just less than 2,000 a year.
The deaths from the pandemic this year were almost as much as strokes (5,180), Alzheimer’s disease (4,474) and diabetes (2,824) combined.
Some regions of Michigan have been disproportionately affected, when deaths are calculated on a per-100,000 population basis. The Upper Peninsula has four counties with more than 200 deaths per 100,000 -- Ontonagon, Iron, Baraga and Dickinson.
