This week, the Berrien County Health Department announced it will update its COVID-19 data dashboard.

As of Friday afternoon, the dashboard had not been updated.

“We are making some improvements to the dashboard and are working to display even more information about COVID-19 in our community,” BCHD officials said on social media.

The dashboard has been active on the website of the Ministry of Health since May 2020.

According to state data, Berrien County remained in the high level of COVID-19 transmission all week. This is the fifth consecutive week that the county has been on high transmission.

From September 9 to 15, the county recorded about 430 new cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 residents. From September 2 to 8, the county recorded about 157 new cases per 100,000 residents.

The county had about 13.5% of its positive tests this week. This is up from 12.7% last week.

COVID hospitalizations at Spectrum Health Lakeland did not increase significantly this week as the hospital officials predicted they could last week.

On average, there were about 22 patients admitted per day. This is the total admitted, no new admissions each day. This includes people who are being treated for symptoms of COVID-19 and those who are positive who are admitted for something else.

Friday, condition data showed Spectrum Health Lakeland having 19 COVID patients and six in the intensive care unit.

This equates to approximately 93 percent of bed occupancy.

Vaccine update

Uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine in Berrien County has increased significantly this week compared to recent weeks.

COVID-19 vaccine suppliers in Berrien County administered 1,799 doses this week. The previous week the county administered 872 doses and the previous week 1,071 doses.

As of Thursday, 139,545 doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been administered in Berrien County, of which 64,129 were second doses, according to state data.

This equates to about 57.5% of residents of Berrien County (12 years and older) with at least one dose of the vaccine, and about 52.9% being fully vaccinated.

As of Thursday, the county was at 56.7% with at least one dose and 52.3% fully vaccinated.

Van Buren, Cass

Van Buren and Cass counties both remained in high transmission of COVID-19 again this week.

Van Buren County recorded 220 new cases of COVID-19 this week and one new death. The county had recorded 124 new cases last week and 56 new cases the week before.

Cass County recorded 164 new cases of COVID-19 this week and three new deaths. The county had 126 new cases last week and 46 new cases the week before.

Van Buren County’s positivity percentage rose from 8.3% last week to 12% this week, according to county data. Cass County’s positivity percentage increased from 18.6% to 19%.

In total, Van Buren County has recorded 7,498 COVID-19 cases and 134 deaths. Cass County has recorded 5,424 COVID-19 cases and 77 deaths.

As of Thursday, Van Buren County had 61% of residents (12 years and older) with at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 56.5% fully vaccinated, according to state data.

As of Thursday, the county was at 60.4% with one dose and 55.9% fully vaccinated.

As of Thursday, Cass County had about 40.1% residents with at least one dose and 36.6% fully vaccinated.

As of Thursday, the county was at 39.3% with one dose and 36.1% fully vaccinated.