Courtesy Image An illustration of the coronavirus provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

ALPENA — Deaths did not spike at Northeast Michigan nursing homes, according to updated state data posted online today following a “glitch” that led to erroneous numbers released on Monday.

Since the pandemic hit Michigan in mid-March, nine Northeast Michigan nursing home residents have died after being infected with the coronavirus, updated state data showed today. That’s the same number of deaths reported in the state’s last nursing home data update on Dec. 1.

The state’s Monday update, however, showed nursing home deaths spiking to 30. The News reported that information in today’s edition.

The News reached out to the state after one Alpena nursing home administrator disputed the state’s Monday data.

The state updated the information today. Lynn Sutfin, spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, said in an email to The News that “there was a glitch when the report was pulled” on Monday.

The state accurately reported on Monday that cumulative nursing home resident infections jumped from 63 on Dec. 1 to 87 as of Monday and cumulative nursing home employee infections jumped from 66 to 86 in that time, according to today’s update.

The state, which compiles data provided by nursing homes, schools, doctor’s offices, clinics, hospitals and health departments statewide, has repeatedly throughout the pandemic been forced to update numbers after glitches and human error caused erroneous information to be reported.

The News relies on local health department data whenever possible, but local health departments do not report nursing home infections.