So, when was the last time you wore a mask, and last Halloween does not count?

You remember the COVID masks? And many of you out there would not be hurt if you ever saw one again.

But others of you, if you rummage around the house, you might find one or two leftover from the pandemic … now just a fond memory.

Well, not quite.

COVID in Michigan is not on the human rampage that it was during its peak back in 2021-2023 or so but its alive and well in Michigan although it long ago left the daily news cycle and video of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and her team all masked up as she conducted weekly COVID briefings for the capitol press corp via zoom. The body count was a grim story to cover as the virus made its rounds from family to family and dead body to dead body.

Looking for a breather the other day to write a column that had nothing to do with the hot news topics of the day, which are grinding everyone down bit by bit, the topic of COVID emerged and a quick check of the data, hopefully, will bring you up to date on where we are.

This is an easy story to report. Take a blank sheet of paper. Take your magic marker and start at the top of the paper and draw a straight line down to the bottom. There you have the COVID chart in Michigan in a nutshell.

Hospitalizations are down. Emergency Room visits are down. The number of cases is down. And in a complete 180-degree flip from the year 2020, when weekly deaths hovered dangerously around the 1,000 figure give or take a hundred or so, the body count in our state last week was….ONE! Neighboring Ohio had none.

There were 869 cases for an average of 124 per day, but in 21 of the state’s 83 counties, there were no cases to report. And the rest of the state reported between one and 200 cases, according to the state public health department.

And according to the CDC out of Washington, Michigan is among 20 states with a caseload decline, another 21 states have a steady case count, and only four are on the rise, and that includes Florida for all you late Snow Birds yet to have set foot in the Sunshine state this Spring.

And turns out the Great Lakes region is doing better than the West Coast and down South when it comes to positive test results. Recently, there were 17,700 COVID tests administered in the six-state region around here, and the positivity rate was 3.7%. California, with a ton more bodies, clocked in at 4.7%. The South at 3.9% and out East, those folks were the best in the country with a 2.6% positive test finding.

Back home, some interesting data emerges from the COVID demographics where more women than men are getting sick; African-Americans are hardest hit with Asians in last place and while everybody knows that those over 60 years old are still the favorite target of the illness, one tidbit jumped out that could give caretakers for young children pause.

Turns out those who are newborn up to age 9 are getting more COVID than those between the ages of 10 and 30. The department did not have an explanation for that somewhat unusual finding.

Yet, while the disease is not packing the whollip it had years ago, the aftermath of the virus continues to impact other areas.

The school kids are still in a recovery mode, both mentally and academically, as their feelings and test scores took a hit during the pandemic. Kids did not learn as well on the Internet as they did in the classroom before COVID chased them home.

The Trump administration recently made education matters worse in our state, according to school leaders, as it unilaterally ignored a promise to continue the flow of federal post COVID dollars into the schools for remedial services and with the cut off, some administrators will have to scramble to pay for unfinished work now underway to germ-proof the schools via beefing up the ventilation system and other infrastructure improvements.

Can you say millage increase?

But some things never change as the 60 and older crowd continues to be reminded to get their summer booster shots that are now due. That should help to keep the COVID bug from moving us back to the days when we were deeply divided on wearing a mask or not. Like we need something else to fight over.