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

ALPENA — State health officials this week updated COVID-19 guidance to allow fully vaccinated and symptom-free people to attend indoor and outdoor residential gatherings without a mask.

State health officials no longer require routine testing for fully vaccinated organized sports participants, and participants may remove masks outdoors during practice and competition for non-contact sports, according to local health officials.

Call 800-221-0294 for information about walk-in or by-appointment clinics on May 13 and 27 at the District Health Department No. 4 office in Alpena.

As of Friday, 47% of Alpena County residents 16 or older had been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to state data.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has said Michigan can begin to fully reopen once 70% of its residents 16 and older have been vaccinated.

The state says 52% of Presque Isle County residents, 45% of Montmorency County residents, and 47% of Alcona County residents have been fully vaccinated.

In the past week, public health officials have reported 167 newly infected or probably Northeast Michiganders and the death of one person who had been infected.

Since February, Northeast Michigan health officials had reported confirmed and suspected infections as one number. A person is suspected infected if they’d been exposed to a confirmed infected person but hadn’t been tested, themselves — such as family members of infected people.

Northeast Michigan public health agencies stopped reporting the number of people recovered from COVID-19, but, based on federal definitions that consider a person living 30 days after infection to have recovered from the disease, The News estimates 1,320 Northeast Michiganders were actively infected — and potentially contagious — on Friday.

A week ago, 1,318 residents were actively infected.

Other key Northeast Michigan COVID-19 statistics:

∫ As of Thursday, 13 COVID-19 patients were admitted at MidMichigan Medical Center-Alpena, three of them in intensive care. The hospital was 46% full. State officials watch hospital occupancy rates closely to decide whether to impose new restrictions meant to slow the spread of infection.

∫ Since the pandemic’s start in mid-March 2020, public health officials have reported 4,441 Northeast Michiganders infected or probably infected, and 122 related deaths.

∫ On April 27, the state reported one newly infected resident of Northeast Michigan nursing homes, and two newly infected nursing home employees. That’s a key statistic, because COVID-19 tends to cause the most serious complications in infected senior citizens, and nursing home infections accounted for most infections early on in the outbreak.