Ingham County officials confirmed Wednesday that 31 more positive cases of COVID-19 have been tied to an East Lansing bar and eatery, pushing the total to 138.
The 138 cases include 119 patrons at Harper’s Restaurant & Brew Pub, and 19 who were exposed to them, county health officer Linda Vail told The Detroit News.
Those infected range in age from 16 to 63 and represent more than a dozen counties. As many as 36 were asymptomatic, she said. None have been hospitalized.
The county reported 107 cases on Monday, climbing from 85 Saturday and 22 when officials announced the first infections days earlier.
County health officials expected to see a “significant diminishing” in the number of positive cases related to visiting Harper’s, which has been closed for nearly two weeks, Vail said. But it’s not yet clear how many cases will result from those who only had contact with those customers.
“It is my hope that those primary cases are going to slow down and we don’t kick off a wave of secondary transmission,” Vail said.
Harper’s announced on Facebook June 22 it was closing to “implement a program to eliminate lines, and to modify our HVAC system to install an air purifying technology while the air is being conditioned and re-circulated. When we have finished implementing these two strategies, we will have the most state-of-the-art neighborhood venue for you to visit safely.”
People who visited Harper’s from June 12-20 are considered exposed and have been asked to self-quarantine for 14 days since their visit.
Anyone who was at Harper’s during that time also is urged to seek testing.
A list of coronavirus testing sites are available on the state’s website: https://www.michigan.gov/coronavirustest.
Meanwhile, Ingham County has issued an emergency order reducing restaurant capacity to 50% or no more than 75 people, whichever is less.
The county’s emergency order directly affects large licensed food service establishments with capacities of more than 150. No food service establishment can have more than 75 patrons at one time.
On Wednesday, as the state reported five coronavirus deaths and confirmed 262 new cases of COVID-19, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered the closure of all indoor bars as well as most strip and night clubs through much of lower Michigan to fight the spread of the coronavirus.
New infections in Michigan are on the rise after weeks of decline, but hospitals overall are not reporting an increase in COVID-19 patients. In another good sign, the percentage of those testing positive for the virus is flat at about 2.5%.
The average number of new cases for the past seven days is up to 311 a day from an average of 223 a day for the previous seven-day period, according to state data. In addition to the 262 cases confirmed Wednesday, the state reported 99 probable cases.
In recent days, the regions of Grand Rapids, Lansing and Kalamazoo have exceeded 20 new cases per million people, a benchmark used to identify a concerning increase in the rate of regional growth.
Due to the uptick in cases, Whitmer has been considering reimposing some restrictions in certain regions of the state.
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