Virus vs. vaccination: Snapshot of Plymouth, Canton & Northville

New data show that Plymouth, Canton and Northville remain far above the state's highest risk level for the rate of new cases of COVID-19.

Case counts through April 27 show the start of a downward trend after two months of rising numbers, according to community-level data provided by Wayne County and graphed by a U-M epidemiologist who lives in Plymouth.

Anyone can use the website created by Dr. Emily Somers and her U-M students to create graphs of COVID activity trends in any Wayne County community outside Detroit, for any time period from March 2020 to now.

The site, https://um-somerslab.shinyapps... , also offers the option to see COVID activity for Plymouth/Canton combined, and for Northville/Northville Township combined. Users can choose to see the data for a single community or multiple communities in terms of 7-day averages or averages across longer periods, and in relation to risk levels set by the state of Michigan or the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

Hospitals in the metro Detroit-Ann Arbor area continue to treat hundreds of patients with serious cases of COVID-19, and these include many more young adults, teens and children than in past surges in the state. Read more about this in a story from C.S. Mott Children's Hospital.

Meanwhile, as of April 29, 55% of Wayne County residents over the age of 16 have received at least one dose of vaccine against COVID-19, according to the state vaccination dashboard. Vaccination is critical to preventing serious cases of the illness and slowing the spread of the virus, but only people age 16 and up can be vaccinated.

The CDC's latest guidance for what people who are fully vaccinated can do is available here. Guidance on the safety level of different indoor and outdoor activities, especially for people who are unvaccinated, is available here.